Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni has told the Tinubu-led federal government to quickly punish anyone who is found guilty of hurting Christians in Nigeria.
She also asked for better security in Christian communities in Nigeria.
Meloni said in a statement yesterday that attacks on Christians were wrong and that everyone should have the right to practice their religion freely.
“We strongly condemn the renewed violence against Christian communities in Nigeria today.” We say that religious freedom is an unalienable right. We want the Nigerian government to do more to protect Christian communities and all religious groups and to punish those who carried out this terrible attack. She wrote, “Italy expresses its closeness to the victims and communities in Nigeria that today feel in danger because of their religious beliefs.”
Her position came after additional allegations of attacks on Christian communities in Nigeria, including as the recent kidnapping of worshippers in Kwara State throughout the week.
Police and witnesses stated that gunmen raided a church in the Eruku area of the state on Tuesday night, killing at least two people and taking the pastor and several worshippers hostage. This happened just days after 25 girls were taken from a boarding school in Kebbi State.
The incident in Eruku on Tuesday night puts greater pressure on the administration. U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened military action over what he calls the persecution of Christians.
After a lot of protests, President Bola Tinubu put off a planned trip to South Africa and Angola for the G20 and AU-EU summits to get security briefings on the two attacks. His office claimed he had ordered extra security to find the attackers in Kwara.
According to the President’s spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, the president also told the security agencies to “do everything possible” to rescue the schoolgirls who were “abducted by the bandits and bring the girls back home safe.”
The gunmen who attacked the people praying in Kwara have since asked for a N3 billion ransom before they will let the victims go.
Chief Olusegun Olukotun, a community leader and Olori Eta of Eruku, revealed that the bandits had begun to get in touch with family members of the four people who were kidnapped.
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