Laity Council demand actions on Benue priests killings
The Catholic lay faithful in Nigeria, under the aegis of the Catholic Laity Council of Nigeria (CLCN), has expressed sadness over the murder of two priests, Rev. Fr. Joseph Gor and Rev. Fr. Felix Tyolaha, a catechist and several other parishioners of St. Ignatius Catholic Church, Ukpor-Mbalom in Gwer Local Government Area of Benue State. […]
The Catholic lay faithful in Nigeria, under the aegis of the Catholic Laity Council of Nigeria (CLCN), has expressed sadness over the murder of two priests, Rev. Fr. Joseph Gor and Rev. Fr. Felix Tyolaha, a catechist and several other parishioners of St. Ignatius Catholic Church, Ukpor-Mbalom in Gwer Local Government Area of Benue State.
The National President, Sir Thomas Folu Adekoya and National Secretary-General, Sir Henry H. Yunkwap in a statement yesterday demand that the killers of the two clerics and the other worshipers be immediately fished out and be made to pay for their heinous crime.
“We also demand that everything possible be done to ensure that this will be the last of this kind of killing in Nigeria so that Nigerians of all creeds will enjoy the secularity enshrined in our country’s constitution,” the statement said.
They said that the stance of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), on the current state of nation with particular reference to the Catholic Church attack should not be ignored by the government.
“The unwarranted killing of the two priests and the other worshipers during morning Mass has confirmed our fears that the rampaging herdsmen wreaking havoc in Benue and other states of Nigeria are indeed terrorists who the Federal Government, with all the security apparatus at its disposal, has failed to contain. After all, the premises of St. Ignatius Catholic Church are neither a grazing field nor a farm that it should attract herdsmen.
“The killing of any Nigerian in circumstance such as this is bad enough but the killing of two reverend fathers, in one fell swoop, inside a church during Mass, is most sacrilegious, provocative, a deliberate assault on the Christian Faith and an open invitation to religious war from which we pray our merciful God to deliver Nigeria,’ they said.
While urging Catholic faithful and Nigerian Christians to remain steadfast and prayerful in the face of the provocations for the sake of peace in the country, they also urged the Federal Government led by President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that Nigeria and Nigerians are protected from foreign invaders who perpetrate evils against the citizens.