The General Secretary of CAN, Dr. Musa Asake, gave the charge at a press conference in Abuja, while the CBCN made their position known in a statement. According to the CAN scribe, the president’s excuses were unacceptable because no concrete action has been taken to stop the killings of defenceless people of Benue State and others in various parts of the country.
He was emphatic that there were indications that security agencies in the country have been compromised and indeed working against crop farmers, while supporting the Fulani attackers. His words, “These criminals have been operating with impunity, leaving a strong impression that the security architecture in Nigeria has collapsed.
There is also the suspicion that the entire security system of Nigeria is compromised. “Unarguably, lawlessness and impunity are reigning supreme in Nigeria, while the country is fast heading to chaos and anomie. It has never been this bad in the country that had lived relatively peaceful since independence.
The sad angle to it is that the Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, is not giving majority of Nigerians an impression of being deeply touched by the turn of events. He has been acting complacent and indeed unmoved by the reign of terror that his administration has permitted since the past three years of being the President.
Most painfully, the President seems to depend on his media aides to make responses, which often times had no bite on widespread bloodletting across the federation, most especially in the Middle Belt part of the country.” Dr. Asake urged all Nigerian Christians at home and in the Diaspora to observe tomorrow as Sunday of Mourning and Protest overthe killings of Christians and also demand the immediate release of Leah Sharibu and the remaining girls from Chibok who are still in Boko Haram captivity.
He also condemned the violation of the Federal Character Principle in appointments in the security and education by the Buhari Administration and urged the National Assembly to reverse the lopsided appointments. The CBCN in its statement called for President Muhammadu Buhari’s resignation for failing to protect Nigerians from the killers.
The statement signed by the president of the CBCN and Catholic Arch Bishop of Benin, Augustine Akubeze. It added that Buhari has been “presiding over the killing field that Nigeria has become”, and that there were indications of Buhari’s connivance in the killings. The statement read in part, “We have just discovered that on January 3 this year, Fr Gor tweeted: ‘We are living in fear. The Fulanis are still around here in Mbalom (where they were killed). They refuse to go. They still go grazing around. No weapons to defend ourselves.’
Since the President who appointed the Heads of the nation’s Security Agencies has refused to call them to order, even in the face of the chaos and barbarity into which our country has been plunged, we are left with no choice but to conclude that they are acting a script that he approves of.”
