Human rights group blames Buhari for continuous massacre of Christians

According to the group, the vendetta against non-Muslims worsen after Muhammadu Buhari became president on May 29, 2015, NewsExpress reports.

The group quoted a report from Open Doors, an anti-Christian persecution watchdog, while citing recent cases of religious killings.

“The Open Doors also stated in its report that 1.3 million Christians had fled their homes to safer places to avoid being hacked to death by religious fanatics and that between 2009 and 2014; a period of five years, 11,500 Christians were killed and 13,000 churches destroyed in Boko Haram insurgency.

For instance, Mr. Francis Emmanuel, a Christian carpenter, backed by violent northern politicians. The attack took place in Kakuri area of Kaduna State. He was inflicted with deep machete cuts on his head and other parts of his body for ‘eating during the Ramadan fast.’

Another Christian, a 74-year-old member of Deeper Life Bible Church, Mrs. Bridget Agbahime, was stoned to death in Kano by some Muslim traders for ‘blasphemy against Prophet Mohammed.’

In the same period, a 42-year-old Deaconess Eunice Elisha Olawale, a member of the Redeemed Christian Church of God in Abuja during her early morning preaching in her neighborhood.

On 15 of July 2016, worshipers at Saint Philip Catholic Church in Baki Ikun along Kaduna Road in Suleja, Niger State and their Church were invaded, attacked and burnt by some politically sponsored Muslim fanatics for ‘worshiping on Friday solely meant for Muslims.’

Other instances of killing including beheading and lynching of Christians and burning of their sacred places of worship by the malicious and untamed entities named above are too numerous to mention.

Through State created, aided and abetted Fulani Janjaweed violence, targeted at rural Christian populations in North-central or Middle-Belt, Southeast and South-south Nigeria, thousands of innocent rural Christians have also been murdered in their sleep and farms. Since the inception of the Buhari administration on 29th May 2015, over 1, 000 Christians have been massacred.

In 2014 alone, 1,229 mostly Christians were massacred by the Government backed agro-religious fundamentalist group, erroneously called ‘Fulani Herdsmen.’ In six months of 2015 (January-June), 621 mostly rural Christians were massacred. In this 2016 alone, over 500 including over a dozen Christian priests and royal fathers have been butchered in their sleep and farms by the Government backed Janjaweed. The list of persecution and butchering of Christians in Nigeria is inexhaustible", Intersociety stated.

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This is not the first time the president has been accused of aiding the killing of Christians.

Rev. Musa Asake, the General Secretary of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), has also blamed the present administration for the increasing killings of non-Muslims.

According to him, the government has a conspiracy to kill all Christians, hence, their inability to stop this massacre.

"From the way I see things happening, there is a grand plan to wipe out Christians in this country but by the grace of God it will not come to pass. That is why I am saying if the government is not going to protect us, then we have no choice but to protect ourselves. We will not continue to fold our hands and accept being killed for no reason. These killings are going on as usual and we have got to a point to say ‘enough is enough.’ Everybody has to defend themselves", he said.

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