MUSLIM HATE IN NIGERIA!
Christian Leaders in Nigeria Call Bauchi Violence Premeditated
Numerous weapons and mercenaries point to plans awaiting a triggering incident, they say.
By Obed Minchakpu
ChristianNewsToday.com
TAFAWA BALEWA, Nigeria, – Christian leaders in Bauchi state said religious violence here sparked by a row over a billiards table on Jan. 27 bore signs that Muslim extremists were prepared for a large-scale slaughter of Christians.
Initially authorities said only 18 people were killed after sectarian violence erupted in the areas of Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro, where there are large Christian populations in predominantly Muslim Bauchi state in northern Nigeria. Since then, estimates have ranged wildly from 25 to 96 people killed over a three-day period starting Jan. 27, with Christian leaders asserting that Muslim extremists used the billiards table incident as a pretext for unleashing attacks with a stockpile of weapons hidden in mosques.
As early as Feb. 1, Bauchi Commissioner of Police Mohammed Indabawa said at a press conference that 25 bodies had been recovered in a joint security operation in Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro, with 38 people arrested. Shortly thereafter, a local legislator in the Bauchi House of Assembly, Aminu Tukur, told journalists that 31 bodies had been recovered and were buried in the area.
Subsequently Luka Chongda, chairman of the Sayawa Development Association, a community Non-Governmental Organization in Tafawa Balewa, reportedly said 96 people had died in the violence. He cited data collated from affected areas in both Bogoro and Tafawa Balewa four days after the Jan. 27 incident.
Christian leaders in Tafawa Balewa told Compass that triggering incident – in which a Muslim was said to have burned a billiards table belonging to a Christian, prompting youths from Christian families to burn mosques and Muslim homes – led to the emergence of Muslim weapons caches and Islamist mercenaries. Islamists had made preparations for attacks in the areas with large Christian populations, the Christian leaders said, and were awaiting a pretext for carrying them out.
The Rev. Ibrahim Ezekiel of the Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN) in Tafawa Balewa told Compass that Muslims in Bauchi state have tried to eliminate the Christian communities in Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro since violence first erupted in 1991.
“The Muslims have been attacking us, and the government of Bauchi state knows this,” Ezekiel said. “Yet the government has given these Muslims the backing to attack us. They want to exterminate the Christian communities here, and that is the reason they are supporting the attacks on us.”
Ezekiel, pastor of a COCIN congregation in Maryam, a suburb of Tafawa Balewa, said that area Muslims “used a lot of weapons to attack our people” that were stockpiled in mosques. Apart from the use of guns and other weapons to attack Christians, Ezekiel said area Islamists brought in Muslim mercenaries.
“They brought in mercenaries to attack us,” he said. “They label Christians here as infidels who must be dealt with. The Muslims are the aggressors – they killed our people and burned their houses. Christians who were helpless had no choice than to fight back and defend their families.”
Armed Muslims as young as 15 years old shot Christians they encountered, Ezekiel said. Christian youths seeking revenge for the billiards table incident stoked the violence until security forces could contain them and their Muslim counterparts; the pastor said 47 Christians have been arrested, with 27 of them charged.
The violence that erupted in the only two local council areas with large Christian populations in Bauchi state led to significant property destruction that is as yet unknown in monetary terms. In addition, according to community leader Chongda, the violence displaced 800 families, with many of those yet to return.
Among Christians in Tafawa Balewa whose bodies have been recovered and buried are Pastor Bitrus Dangana of the Evangelical Church Winning All; Haruna Ayuba; Dima Apollos; Promise Isaac; Mama Likita Dadi; and Irimiya Mainama. Also killed were Christians identified only as Emmanuel in the Sabon Layi area of Tafawa Balewa; Godiya; and Gambo, a butcher in Maryam.
Abubakar Adamu, an official of the Red Cross Society in Bauchi, confirmed that the incident had displaced about 5,000 persons. The Red Cross was treating many of the wounded and burned, he said.
Ramat Kure of Maryam village told Compass that the violence in Tafawa Balewa was the fourth outbreak since 1991.
“The religious crisis in the area has remained unresolved because the Christian community is being oppressed by Muslims in the state,” he said. “The incessant religious conflicts in the area are as a result of deliberate policy of marginalization and persecution targeted at Christians by the Muslim political leaders in the state.”
Kure said he witnessed the killing of 10 Christians in Tafawa Balewa on Jan. 27.
Areas hit by the violence were Angwan Sarki village, Angwan Madaki, Arewa, Sabon Layi, and Bauchi-Dass Road. Muslims reportedly barricaded the Bauchi Dass Highway, pulling dozens of Christians from their vehicles and killing them.
Pastor Yunnana Yusuf of the COCIN Centre in Tafawa Balewa said he was in his home within the church compound on Jan. 27 when he heard shouting around the market square.
“I came out only to see people throwing stones at each other and, on inquiring, I was told that there was a fight going on between Muslims and Christians,” he told Compass. “In no time, I heard gunshots. As I came out, I saw one Alhaji Maigida and another Muslim by the name of Alhaji Maishayi, about a hundred meters away, distributing guns to some Muslims, and they began shooting. Instantly, I saw three Christians being shot. It was this that triggered the incident, and within a short time, the entire town and surrounding villages were attacked and razed by Muslim attackers.”
The dispute between the Muslim billiards player and the Christian pool table owner was reportedly settled by mediation of area elders on Jan. 26, but Muslims later burned the table, prompting Christian youths to burn 50 houses and five mosques, according to police commissioner Indabawa.
Vatican says pope saddened about violence against Nigerian
Christians
By Carol Glatz
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI urged security officers to restore peace
and the rule of law in Nigeria after violence against Christians left up to 50
people dead, including a Catholic priest.
Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's secretary of state, said in a telegram
sent to church and government officials in Nigeria that the pope was "saddened
to learn of the tragic consequences of the recent violent protests in northern
Nigeria."
A Muslim protest against a series of European cartoons offensive to Islam,
originally published in Denmark, proceeded peacefully Feb. 18 in the city of
Maiduguri, capital of Nigeria's Borno state.
But after the demonstration, armed men took to the streets, setting afire
churches, homes and businesses owned by Christians. Some 50 people, reportedly
all Christians, were killed in the blazes or by their attackers, said Bishop
Matthew Ndagoso of Maiduguri.
The papal telegram, which the Vatican released to journalists Feb. 21, said the
pope was praying for all those affected by the violence, especially those who
had been killed and their loved ones.
The pope made special mention of Father Michael Gajere, the Nigerian priest who
died inside a burning parish compound after staying behind to save a group of
altar boys from attackers.
The pope called on all those "involved in providing security ... to ensure peace
and to promote the rule of law for which all people of good will long," the
telegram said.
Speaking to
Catholic News Service by phone Feb. 21
from Maiduguri, Bishop Ndagoso said the church and local Christians are
questioning why no adequate security was provided for the Feb. 18 demonstration.
He said there was "no visible police presence" when fires started in different
parts of the city as soon as demonstrators dispersed from the city's main square
at 10 a.m.
Government "agencies gave permission for this demonstration, but they know
demonstrations in our country often turn violent, and so they should have taken
adequate security measures," he said.
He said police only came on the scene "after the damage had been done. To us,
this shows the complicity on the part of the government."
The bishop said in addition to those killed, hundreds were injured, and 40
church buildings were destroyed. Among them were four Catholic churches and the
bishop's house.
"My house is burned completely down, even the walls have fallen down," Bishop
Ndagoso said. He said he was away at a seminar the morning the violence broke
out, "otherwise I would have been caught there" in the burning home.
Father Gajere was the diocesan justice and peace director and helped dig wells
and build dams for the surrounding Muslim communities, the bishop said. Born
locally in 1964, the priest was ordained in 1992 and always worked in the same
diocese.
Bishop Ndagoso said the priest was with about eight altar boys inside the
rectory when the church next door was set ablaze. The priest faced the attackers
as they stormed the rectory, and he urged them to not cause anyone any harm,
said the bishop.
"When he realized the flames were closing in, he told the kids to run and they
jumped the wall" surrounding church compound, the bishop told CNS. The priest
stayed behind "to persuade the attackers to do nothing, but instead he paid the
supreme price" with his death.
"The situation is still very tense. Even though people are going about their
business, there is an uneasy calm," he said.
While some have suggested criminals or local hoodlums were responsible for
transforming the peaceful demonstration into an inferno, Bishop Ndagoso said one
"cannot rule out religious motives."
"It has clearly religious undertones, because why would they only burn Christian
businesses, homes and churches?" he asked.
The northern Nigerian state of Borno is more than 60 percent Muslim. There are
about a half million Christians in a state of 3.5 million people, the bishop
said.
He said the government listed the official death toll at 15 in an effort to
minimize the severity of the incident and prevent outbreaks of retaliatory
violence in the city and elsewhere.
Meanwhile, the apostolic nuncio in Nigeria, Archbishop Renzo Fratini, told the
Vatican missionary news agency, Fides, that he believes there was "no specific
hatred against Catholics in Nigeria" and that the latest violence "had little to
do with religion."
He said there have been tensions between Muslims and all Christians, not just
Catholics, but that political unrest may have been the trigger in Maiduguri,
since protesters were also contesting a proposed constitutional amendment that
would allow Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, a Christian, to run for a
third term.