The State Chairman for the Christian Association of Nigeria in Kaduna, Rev. Joseph Hayab on Wednesday, lamented that the insecurity in the country and in the state, are becoming more troubling and worrisome.
Hayab said the situation today was worse than when the association cried out over the spate of kidnapping, banditry and armed robbery in the state last year which was misinterpreted in some quarters.
The CAN leader said every day he goes to homes, commiserating with brethren over loss of lives of their beloved ones, resulting from killings by suspected bandits.
Recall that the state chapter of the Council of Ulama, had in August 2019, accused the CAN leadership in the state of ‘politicizing’ security matters.
The Muslim body had then queried the claims by the association that no fewer than 500 Christians were kidnapped in the last two years with N300m paid as ransom, warning that such won’t augur well for the state.
However, the CAN leader had in his reply, said,
“We did not say they(abductors) are only kidnapping Christians. We said they have been kidnapping people in Kaduna state but that the new trend these days is that they are kidnapping pastors. So, what are they up to?
“We even say that they are kidnapping pastors so that they will trigger reaction from Christians and we called on Muslims to join hands with us to expose them.
“As the leader of Christians in Kaduna state, if my house is on fire and I cry and you say I am raising issues for war, then it is quite unfortunate!
“I will be a bad leader if I don’t speak out on the issues that are threatening the existence of my people.
“Their sponsors want to divert attention to the real thing that is making us cry.”
But the Hayab on Wednesday in Kaduna said that the association was being vindicated at the moment, saying that this was not the case when the association cried out last year that its members and other residents were being depleted by terrorists in the state.
He noted that if the government of the day had listened, paid attention and acted to those genuine cries and not bandied critics as ‘enemies,’ the situation would have abated by now.
Hayab said:
“When we are crying that there is kidnapping and killing, they said ‘no, we are creating problems’. We are not talking now, is it not happening (kidnapping and killing)? We are not talking, the number of people being kidnapped and being killed now are more than when we talked.
“If we had cried that time and they(government) pay listening ears; if we had cried that time and they pay attention; if we had cried that time and they take action; if we cried that time and they started doing something, I can assure you that by today, we would have gone far out of that problem.
“But they couldn’t do that. Instead of them thinking why are these people crying? What do we do to convince them that we are committed to what we are doing? They turned to attack us.
“So, we are not crying but they larger people are crying. Everyday, I go to homes, commiserating. In Juji Community(Chikun LGA), few days ago, they (bandits) went there. It was an exchange of gunfire. They killed one of the vigilantes. They took the wife of a medical doctor and his children. They are with the kidnappers. Is that what we want to see?”
