World Bishops Write Buhari, Reject Death Sentence For Christians ‘Who Killed Herdsmen’
The death sentence preferred against five Christians who allegedly killed some Fulani herdsmen has been rejected by the Supreme Council of Bishops, known otherwise as the World Council of Bishops.
The council, in a letter written to President Muhammadu Buhari and signed by its founding Primate, Archbishop P. Sunday, said it was unacceptable to sentence the five Christians from Kodomun in Demsa council area to death when adequate justice hasn’t been passed on Fulani herdsmen who have allegedly been killing innocent Nigerians across the length and breadth of the country.
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The Federal High Court in Yola, Adamawa state, had on June 11, 2018, passed the sentence on the said persons for killing some herdsmen in retaliation to attacks on their communities.
In the letter issued from Texas, United States and titled “Special request for presidential pardon: Killing by hanging of five young men,” the World Council of Bishops is asking President Buhari to pardon the convicts whose action it deemed was done out of anguish.
The council said the country “has suffered untold bloodshed from killings, maiming, traumatisation of innocent citizens around the north eastern, north central and Middle Belt states, as a result of the frequent attacks by the militia herdsmen times without number.”
It noted that “till date no adequate justice had been meted out on them commensurate to the lives and property lost” adding that it “totally condemns and disapproves vehemently the death sentence passed on the five young men on Monday, June 11, 2018 by a court of competent jurisdiction in Yola, Adamawa State, Nigeria accused and charged for killing a herdsman.”
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The council said, “what our nation Nigeria sues for now in our nascent democracy is peace and tranquility, and not otherwise.”
The letter was jointly signed by the councils founding primate, Archbishop (Dr.) P. Sunday; Ecclesiastical Prelate Administrator, Houston, Texas, United State, Archbishop (Dr.) H. Parker; Apostolic Nuncio and Prelate to Africa, Lagos, Nigeria, Bishop (Dr.) J. Onyegbulem; and Ecclesiastical Prelate to West Africa, Niamey, Niger Republic, Bishop (Dr.) J. Hussein.
The council also copied amongst others Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo; Senate President, Bukola Saraki; Chief Justice of the Federation, Walter Samuel Onnoghen; Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara; Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha; as well as Governor Mohammed Jibrilla and the state’s Attorney General, Silas Bala Sanga.
