Christian Association of Nigeria asks probing questions of government after killing of its leader
by Jordan Hilger, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – The Christian Association of Nigeria issued a damning indictment this week of the Nigerian government’s failure to save its leader, who was kidnapped in early January and executed by Boko Haram on Monday.
After the death of Rev. Lawan Andimi, who refused to renounce his faith when prompted by his captors, CAN accused the government of President Muhammadu Buhari not only of negligence in the unfolding genocide of Christians by armed Muslim groups in Nigeria, but also of possible collusion with the perpetrators.
“Why is it possible for these hoodlums to invade the country, kill, maim, burn and kidnap without any convincing checks on the part of the security agencies?” a statement issued by Kwamkur Samuel Vondip, CAN’s Director of Legal and Public Affiars, asked.
Vondip noted that “the very questionable leadership of the security sector…has been skewed toward a religion and region,” echoing the criticisms of many Nigerian Christians who see the President’s Fulani ethnic background as indicative he’s siding with the herders who are killing scores of Christians.
The poor performance of Nigerian security in preventing the genocide, the statement suggests further, is leading many to ask whether the government itself “is not colluding with the insurgents to exterminate Christians in Nigeria.”
6,000 Christians were killed in Nigeria over a four year period from 2015 to 2019, according to the Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust, with over a 1,000 killed in 2019 alone.
The U.S. State Department in December added Nigeria for the first time to its “special watch list” of countries where terrible religious freedom abuses are taking place.