ECWA demands police protection for churches

“We have made a passionate request to the police for the protection of our churches and we are still waiting to receive their response,’’ a leader of the Church, Rev. Bawa Garba, announced at a news conference on Friday in Jos. Garba, who spoke on behalf of the elders of ECWA GoodNews Church, Jos, expressed […]

“We have made a passionate request to the police for the protection of our churches and we are still waiting to receive their response,’’ a leader of the Church, Rev. Bawa Garba, announced at a news conference on Friday in Jos.

Garba, who spoke on behalf of the elders of ECWA GoodNews Church, Jos, expressed dismay at the recent attack on one of their churches by some commercial motorcyclists.

He said that ECWA churches located in volatile areas of the city had been victims of constant attacks recently.

Garba alleged that ECWA churches were constantly being attacked because they were not given protection by security agencies as was done to other places of worship.

He noted that some of the cyclists had gone to the Jos Federal High Court to ventilate their grievances against the state government, but expressed dismay that “some disgruntled elements chose to resort to self-help by causing mayhem’’.

“We view the action of the youth as very provocative and meant to introduce a religious angle to a purely socio-economic action initiated by government and not the Church,’’ he added.

Garba appealed to the state government to call the leadership of the commercial motorcyclists association to order over the violent action of its members.

He also appealed to the government to urgently ensure the enforcement of the ban on the operations of commercial motorcyclists “to stem the crime rate in the city and halt their threat to the fragile peace in the state’’.

He urged government to compensate all those who lost their relations and property as a result of the enforcement of the ban on the operations of commercial motorcyclists. (NAN)