By Tom Garba -Yola/Following the incessant killings of innocent people in Numan and Demsa Local Government Areas of Adamawa State, the Christians Association of Nigeria (CAN) has declared a three-day fasting and prayers, even as it pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari to protect their communities from armed invaders.
State Chairman of CAN, Bishop Dami Steven Mamza said the Christian umbrella body is organizing the three days fasting and prayers for the state and Nigeria.
The fasting program is coming on the heels of the recent massacre in Numan of scores of persons including children and women by armed men suspected to by Fulani herdsmen.
Nigerian security agencies have been blamed for not being proactive in curtailing the coordinated attacks in Numan area.
Mr. Dami disclosed this to journalists at press conference in his office in Yola, calling on all the state’s Christian to begin the prayers and fasting from Friday 8th December to the evening of Sunday 10th December 2017 for security and peace especially in Numan and Demsa.
While reading the press statement, Mr. Mamza said CAN members in the state are in deep mourning as they remember those killed in Numan and Demsa as a result of clashes between farmers and herdsmen.
He called on all Christians in Adamawa state to be “law abiding citizens and remain very vigilant of suspicious persons bend on destroying our peace.
“We pray for the souls of the faithful departed that through the mercy of God they may rest in peace,” he said.
The CAN leader blamed the security agencies for not responding appropriately to the situations.
“However, we also observe the complicity and inaction by some security agencies in respect of the on -going crisis.
“It is such a sad and disturbing thing to live in a nation where the security agencies have heard reports of impending attacks by armed men around the bushes of villages surrounding Numan but failed to act.
“We wish to state here that people are seriously losing confidence in government at all levels as they fail to protect the lives and property of her citizens forgetting the sacred oath they took,” he said.
He continued to say that the attacks against Numan and its environs have been foretold by people who do not want them to live together in peace.
“The phenomenon of coordinated attacks on communities by armed men in and around the Numan areas have assumed dangerous proportion without state actors taking any decisive legal measures to arrest and prosecute offenders.
“The silence of some of our highly placed religious, traditional and political leaders on the Numan crises can be interpreted as an approval of the killings.
“We call on the Federal government under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, as a matter of urgency to act and to deal with offenders as a matter of justice and an assurance that his government “belongs to everybody and to nobody ” and to disabuse the minds of the public that some persons or tribes are ‘sacred cows.’
