PRESS STATEMENT: FROM LYNCHING OF DEBORAH SAMUEL THROUGH OWO CATHOLIC CHURCH MASSACRE TO THE UNLAWFUL INCARCERATION OF MRS. RHODAH JATAU AND MANY MORE— Where Are Nigerian Church Leaders?

INTERNATIONAL COALITION AGAINST CHRISTIAN GENOCIDE IN NIGERIA (ICAC-GEN)

Email: [email protected]  //   [email protected] 

 

Published on Vanguard issue of Tuesday December 19, 2023, page 49

PRESS STATEMENT:

FROM LYNCHING OF DEBORAH SAMUEL THROUGH OWO CATHOLIC CHURCH MASSACRE TO THE UNLAWFUL INCARCERATION OF MRS. RHODAH JATAU AND MANY MORE— Where Are Nigerian Church Leaders?

 

INTERNATIONAL COALITION AGAINST CHRISTIAN GENOCIDE IN NIGERIA (ICAC-GEN), a Christian freedom advocacy group:

Troubled by the incarceration for 18 months and subsequent on-going trial of Mrs. Rhodah Jatau, a Christian, by a Bauchi State Court for the crime of blasphemy bordering on her unequivocal condemnation of the gruesome murder of Miss Deborah Samuel, a second-year student of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto by irate Muslim mob;

Worried by the grave-yard silence and unspiritual complacency of the Nigerian Church leadership led by the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) over the case of Mrs. Rhodah Jatau and many similar cases in the past against Nigerian Christians;

Disappointed that it took an International advocacy group called ADF International to spearhead the fight for Mrs. Rhodah Jataus’s freedom while Nigerian Christian leaders revel in abject hypocrisy and detestable apostasy;

Upset by the fact that up to the present moment, none of the culprits that caused the gruesome death of Miss Deborah Samuel has been brought before the court of law trial neither did the Sokoto State Government and Nigeria Police Force institute any inquiry or investigation into the heinous episode;

Concerned that the current status of Nigerian Christians as citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria are methodologically drifting into the status of “Protected Citizens” under Islamic law with discriminatory and separate judicial system;

Fearful that Nigerian Christians might be pushed to the point of enforcing their full constitutional rights and freedoms as full citizens of the Federal Republic of Nigeria through any constitutional and legal means possible;

Believing that that the only way peaceful coexistence between Christians and Muslims in Nigerian can be achieved is by the full adherence to the constitutional secularity of the nation through the official extrication of Nigeria from all International Muslim Organizations, associations and identities;

Opposed to the current structure of the Nigerian political leadership in which Muslims are respectively the President and Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria;

Trusting that well-meaning and patriotic Nigerians will not continue to stand akimbo watch Nigeria drift precariously from its present state of economic and political precipice to a state of catastrophic political chasm like the cases of the Republic of Sudan, Niger, Guinea, Mali and Gabon;

Wishes to state as follows:

1. The International Coalition against Christian Genocide in Nigeria is disturbed by what has become customary grave-yard silence and inaction of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and other notable leaders of the Church in Nigeria on the on-going jihad-driven unconstitutional persecution, incarceration for 18 months and prosecution of Mrs. Rhodah Jatau for openly condemning the heinous martyr of Miss Deborah Samuel, while the killers of Deborah Samuel walk free on the streets of Nigeria. The questions remains, how many justice systems do we have in Nigeria?

 

2. The International Coalition against Christian Genocide in Nigeria wishes to state ad infinitum that Mrs. Rhodah Jatau’s experience is no more and no less a symptomatic intimidation of not Mrs. Rhodah Jatau as a person, but the collective body of Nigerian Christians who are ignominiously characterized as toothless bull-dogs by their Muslim counterparts.

 

3. The International Coalition against Christian Genocide in Nigeria therefore unequivocally demand the immediate and unconditional discharge and acquittal of Mr. Rhodah Jatau and a formal apology and necessary compensation granted to her.

 

4. The International Coalition against Christian Genocide in Nigeria wishes to thank ADF International for spear-heading the freedom and eventual release of Mrs. Rhodah Jatau through its legal counsel Sean Nelson. The International Coalition against Christian Genocide in Nigeria is equally aware that ADF International is presently at the Supreme Court in a legal battle for the Kano-born Islamic musician Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, who was sentenced to death by hanging for sharing song lyrics claimed to be blasphemous on WhatsApp.

 

5. The International Coalition against Christian Genocide in Nigeria totally agrees with the following findings of ADF International in respect of religious persecutions of Nigerian Christians:

 

• “The cases of Rhoda Jatau and Deborah Emmanuel Yakubu are but two examples of the widespread violence against religious minorities, including Christians in Northern Nigeria, prevalent in Nigeria today.”

 

• “Together with other religious minorities in Nigeria, the persecution of Christians in Nigeria is especially severe. Worldwide, over 5,500 Christians were killed for their faith last year. Of those, 90% were Nigerian.”

 

• “The criminalisation of blasphemy in Nigeria carries with it dangerous implications for the country as a whole. In a country of more than 200 million, split nearly evenly between Christians and Muslims, blasphemy laws are a significant driver of societal tensions. These laws punish the innocent for expressing their beliefs, silence people from sharing their faith, and perpetuate societal violence. Blasphemy laws throughout Nigeria encourage brutal mob violence and inflict severe harm on minority Muslims, Christian converts, and others.”

 

6. The International Coalition against Christian Genocide in Nigeria wish to ask this fundamental question: Is blasphemy in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and if so in which section of the Constitution? This question is pertinent because the crime of blasphemy can only be legal under an Islamic system of Government and not in a secular State like Nigeria.

 

7. Are we being told that Nigeria is now a full-fledged Islamic nation guided by the tenets of Islam? Among the Igbo the type of Muslim head-gear called turban is only reserved for women and subsequently assumes the status of blasphemy when clad by any man. Could it therefore be assumed that this customary law should apply to any Muslim resident in Igboland? This explains why the present Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria will never be a source of credible democracy in Nigeria.

 

8. The question then is why can’t Mrs. Rhodah Jatau be imprisoned and prosecuted outside the confines of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria? The answer is very simple. Any Muslim Magistrate, Qadi or Judge can boldly without qualms incarcerate any Christian for the same reason a Muslim cannot be questioned by the security agencies because they are aware that the major concern of the majority of Nigerian Christian leaders is not the protection of Christianity and Christians in Nigeria but the protection of their earthly riches and possessions.

 

9. When Christians are kidnapped, extorted of unimaginable sums of money as ransoms, tortured and killed with impunity by Muslim bandits, Fulani herdsmen, ISWAP and Boko Haram, nobody speaks or acts, not even the Christian Association of Nigeria. Countless Pastors and Reverend Fathers have been kidnapped, humiliated and gruesomely murdered. The Prelate of Methodist Church of Nigeria was kidnapped with his Chaplain and Methodist Bishop of Owerri Diocese and the Church paid millions of naira as ransom for their release. The Anglican Bishop of Oyo Diocese was equally kidnapped with his wife and millions of Naira paid in ransom. Did any section of Nigerian Christians troop into the streets to protest these acts of reprehensible humiliations of the Christian Church in Nigeria?

 

10. We saw with our naked eyes how unguided Muslim bandits marched as far south as Owo in Ondo State and gruesomely murdered over fifty Christian worshippers on a Sunday morning and subsequently walked away free unscathed; absurdly telling the Governor of Ondo State who hails from Owo that he has his Amotekun Security outfit but we possess the powers to massacre his people at will. There was no protest, no threat of retaliation or call for inquiry from the Nigerian Christian leadership. Nigerian Christians are indeed orphans in the presence of living parents.

 

11. Furthermore, International Coalition against Christian Genocide in Nigeria wishes to state that it unequivocally stands against the present state of a Muslim President and a Muslim Vice President in a country where Christians are demographically greater in number than Muslims. We call upon every true Christian to boldly stand up against this bare-faced electoral robbery beyond the jaundiced decision of the customarily corrupt judicial system; for if we fail to do so it will become a political tradition to which the teaming Nigerian Christian population would lack the moral drive to question in future. So our position remains that the current state of Nigerian political leadership in which a Muslim is the President and a Muslim is the Vice President remains an unacceptable political injustice in law and political tradition of the country.

 

12. The International Coalition against Christian Genocide in Nigeria also fervently stands against the on-going stealth Islamization of Nigeria through the clandestine definition of Nigeria’s national identity at the international diplomatic level as an “Islamic nation” which runs contrary to its constitutional secular status.

 

13. The International Coalition against Christian Genocide in Nigeria is appalled by Federal Government’s toleration of open sympathy and statements defined as support by some Muslim leaders of Northern Nigeria for the heinous activities of Muslim Fulani herdsmen, Muslim Bandits, Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Boko Haram, actions which could lead to treasonable prosecutions if coming from Christian or Southern leaders.

 

14. The International Coalition against Christian Genocide in Nigeria strongly stands against the on-going displacement and massacre of the indigenous Christian population of the Middle Belt and subsequent clandestine resettlement of Fulani refugees from Central African Republic on their land in collaboration with the Fulani leadership of Nigeria.

 

15. For how long shall the Nigerian Christians continue to face this type of unguided humiliation which was only reserved for slaves and serfs of 19^th Century Sokoto Caliphate? This is the fundamental question before the Nigerian Christian leadership—the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Heads of the various Christian Denominations.

 

Signed:

1. Nwankwo T, Nwaezeigwe, President
2. Bolaji O. Akinyemi, Vice President
3. Chukwuka Odunukwe, Vice President (America and the Diaspora)