By EMMANUEL ADEYEMI, Lokoja
The Christian Solidarity Worldwide Nigeria, an International non governmental human Rights organisation has made startling revelations on how coordinated attacks are being carried out against Christians in Northern Nigeria and how their teenage girls are being forcefully abducted and married off
In a one-day sensitisation tagged ‘media roundtable’ organised for media men in Kaduna , the CSWN regretted that Christians in the North are being systematically killed, maimed and rendered homeless due to their profession of the Christian faith.
In his welcome address, the chief executive officer of the human right organisation, Rev. Yunusa Nmadu, expressed deep sadness that in southern Kaduna alone, more than 103 coordinated attacks have been carried out from 2016 to date with hundreds of lives of mostly women and children lost.
He said in some of these attacks curfews were placed on the residents of the communities to restrict their movement but the attackers used the curfew time to unleash attacks using sophisticated weapons on the hapless people.
Rev Nmadu who said it was a bad thing in the sight of God for anyone to take human life called for prayers and repentance, stressing that every man will be made to account for his actions before God on the last day.
During her remarks, the chief operating officer, Mrs Agera Teman Liti said the vision of the organisation is to fight for an equitable and peaceful society and to ensure that everyone is allowed to freely practise his religion without any interference
She also said the organisation is established to support victims of religious discrimination, violence and vulnerable people and to be the voice of the voiceless and to promote religious liberty by mobilizing the general public to pray and stand in the gap for those persecuted.
In his keynote address, the guest speaker Barrister Mark Jacob who urged the media to play it’s watchdog role well by defending the defenceless, and hold the government accountable, said the fabric of the nation is bound to decay if the media is found complicit in its responsibilities.
Barrister Jacob expressed sadness that some journalists took side with the government and refused to report the series of killings in southern Kaduna while some under reported the killings.
He stressed the dangers for any society where the media is found docile or has been compromised.
He therefore urged the journalists to always ensure they do their thorough investigations, unearth the truths and report same without fear of whose ox will be gored, adding that the truth has no substitute.
Participants were later shown video clips of parts of some communities in the southern Kaduna where hundreds of people were gruesomely murdered with some of their houses burnt.
While giving a comprehensive report on the advocacy efforts made so far by the organisation, the director of advocacy, Barrister Mathew Folorunsho Braimoh mentioned series of cases where teenage Christian girls were being abducted and forced to marry Muslims.
He said while some are being enticed with money and material possessions, while other were simply hypnotised such that even when they see their parents they denied them.
Braimoh said in some of the cases he encountered, some of the abductors would argue that the abducted girls were up to 18 years and couldc therefore decide for themselves, but he stressed that one of the fundamental factors of marriage is that the consent of the parents must be sought before they joined together which he said v the abductors refused to follow.
The height of the programme was when participants from each state of the north stood up to give the various persecutions , denials going on in their various states against Christians
In summary, some of the persecutions mentioned against Christians, include discrimination and outright denial to job opportunities, scholarships, medical treatment, education , promotion in state civil service with the refusal of teaching of Christmas religious studies in some primary, secondary schools and some tertiary institutions .
Others are refusal to give land for the building of Churches or over taxiing of existing churches, refusal to allow preaching of a sermons on the state Electronic media, or allowing Christian messages or programmes to be relayed on Christmas day or during Esther celebrations, among others. (Daily Sun)
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