Onitsha, Wednesday, August 24, 2022
The release of four defenseless Catholic Reverend Sisters (Nuns) abducted on Sunday, 21st August 2022 along the Okigwe-Umulolo axis of the Enugu-Port-Harcourt Expressway in Imo by Jihadist Fulani Terrorists has continued to expose the country’s security forces’ inaction; namely: partisanship, unwillingness and inability as fueling the abduction of no fewer than 26 Catholic Clergies and killing of four of them in the second quarter or past eight months of 2022. By ‘Catholic Clergies, they include abducted or slain Reverend Fathers, Sisters (Nuns) and Seminarians. By the Int’l Law Principle of Complimentarity of the ICC Statute of 1998, ratified by Nigeria in Sept 2001, ‘a State-Party (Nigeria) becomes a violator of the Principle laying ground for the ICC to assume jurisdiction when there is a clear case of inability and unwillingness on its part including failure to investigate the atrocities perpetrated, arrest and prosecute its perpetrators and end the atrocities.
Leadership of the Catholic Church in the country including national and local Catholic Clergy dioceses and bodies have also not done enough to morally and spiritually protect their ordained subordinates from threats, dangers and harms directed at them by the country’s Islamic Jihadists. Pieces of evidence abound clearly showing the Church leaders failing to rise in strong condemnation of the conspiratorial activities of the colluding public office holders whose compromises and conspiracies have aided or abetted the sacrilegious abduction and killing of the apostles of Christ. The Catholic Bishops have continued to live in silence and prefer to be according undeserved recognitions and accept stolen or embezzled public funds from such tainted public office holders; thereby exposing the lives and safety of their ordained subordinates and undermining the growth and development of the Catholic and the entire Christian Faith.
Statistically speaking, it must be recalled that Nigeria has between January and this ending August 2022 recorded abduction of at least 50 Christian Clergies of different Christian denominations, out of this, no fewer than 26 are Catholic Clergies (Reverend Fathers, Nuns and Seminarians), strictly abducted or killed on the grounds of their religious beliefs or affiliations. According to a data compiled by the Aid to the Church in Need Int’l (ACN), released on 11th July 2022, “Eighteen Catholic Priests have been abducted in Nigeria between January and first week of July 2022 and five of them abducted in the first week of July 2022 alone”. This number of abducted Catholic Priests has since risen to 22. On 15th July 2022, for instance, two more Catholic Priests (Reverend Fathers John Mark Cheitnum and Donatus Cleopas of Christ the King Catholic Church in Kafanchan, Kaduna State) were abducted and shortly thereafter on 19th July, Father Cheitnum was killed. On Friday, 12th August 2022, Reverend Father Chinedu Nwadike (Cssp) and a young Seminarian, Emmanuel Nwafor (Pre Prostulant) were abducted by Jihadist Fulani terrorists at Umunneochi, along same Enugu-Okigwe-Port-Harcourt Expressway. The four Catholic Priests so far killed this year by the Islamic Jihadists are Reverend Fathers Bako, Borogo, Odia and Cheitnum. The abducted four Reverend Sisters who have regained freedom are: Johannes Nwodo, Christabel Echemazu, Liberata Mbamalu and Benita Agu.
Intersociety hereby makes bold to say that incompetence, partisanship, unwillingness and inability of the country’s security forces to respond to the threats by the Jihadists particularly those laying siege along Umunneochi-Okigwe-Umulolo-Lokpanta of the Enugu-Port-Harcourt Expressway are no longer a hidden fact. The collusion or conspiracy of the security forces in the perpetration and perpetuation of the sacrilegious and dastardly acts is also no longer hidden. While the number of abducted victims in the area since the beginning of January 2022 is unaccountable, over sixty defenseless Igbo Christians and non Muslim others have also been killed since January 2022. The worst is that the same security forces apart from refusing to act have brazenly been protecting the Jihadists and seized nooks and crannies of the Southeast terrorizing innocent and law abiding citizens of the peace loving Region. This is to the extent that several funerals, meetings and festivals have been threatened or disrupted. It is also nearing a stage whereby what critics called “MACBAN security approvals” will be mandatory for important Igbo seasonal events such as New Yam Festivals, August Meetings, etc to be allowed.
Signed:
Emeka Umeagbalasi and Chidinma Udegbunam Esquire
For: International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law
Contacts: +2348174090052, info@intersociety-ng.org