‘Nigerian Army, Police Recruiting Repentant Boko Haram Terrorists’

The Nigerian Army and police have been accused by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) of secretly recruiting former Boko Haram terrorists into the military and force, respectively.

CAN’s President, Samson Ayokunle, who spoke in a statement by his media aide, Bayo Oladeji, accused the security agencies of recruiting the insurgents on the orders of the President Muhammadu Buhari government.

Advertisement

The Christian body alleged that the move is in line with the Operation Safe Corridor of the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) which seeks to rehabilitate repentant insurgents.

CAN equally frowned at the death sentence recently passed on some Christians who reportedly killed some Fulani herdsmen in Yola, Adamawa State, in retaliation for attacks carried out on their communities.

It said, “According to reports, Justice Abdul-Azeez Waziri of a High Court in Adamawa State, recently sentenced Alex Amos, Alheri Phanuel, Holy Boniface, Jerry Gideon and Jari Sabagi to death for culpable homicide.

‘‘The convicts were said to have allegedly on June 1, 2017, aadamun village in Demsa Local Government Area ‘willfully and intentionally conspired and attacked three herdsmen rearing cattle, killing one of them, Adamu Buba, whose body they threw into a river and also maimed several cows.

Advertisement

“While CAN is not supporting jungle justice or any criminality, but we note with regret how hundreds of our members in Southern Kaduna, Benue, Taraba, Plateau states in the North-central geo-political zones, and a state like Enugu in the South, have been killed and are still being killed on a daily basis by some criminals parading themselves as Fulani herdsmen, but are yet to be apprehended.

“We recall with sadness how President Donald Trump had expressed sadness over killings of Christians in Nigeria and even told President Muhammadu Buhari, when he recently visited the White House in Washington DC that the United States of America would no longer tolerate a situation where Christians are being killed with impunity.

‘‘He also stressed that despite the outrage that had trailed the killings of Christians in Nigeria, it is disheartening that none of the killers has been brought to justice. We are shocked at the speed of light deployed by security and judicial officers in sentencing the alleged killers of the herdsman in Adamawa state.”

The Christian body further queried why the court discharged “the alleged killers of Madam Bridget Agbahime on the orders of the Kano State Government? Why have security officials not arrested those behind the killings of Christians in Southern Kaduna, while those arrested for the murder of Mrs. Eunice Elisha Olawale in Kubwa, Abuja, have been set free by the Nigeria Police?’’

Leave a comment

Advertisement