LAGOS (CNS): The Christian Association of Nigeria told the Muslim Solidarity Forum to stop threatening Bishop Matthew Kukah of Sokoto, and said security agencies must ensure his safety. The bishop was told to apologise or leave the state by the forum on January 12, which insisted that his Christmas message criticising the government could trigger religious violence in the country. The forum describes itself as an umbrella body for Islamic organisations, scholars and clerics.
The Christian Association, which is the umbrella body of all Christian denominations in Nigeria, released its statement on January 14 in Abuja.
In his Christmas message, Bishop Kukah said Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari, “deliberately sacrificed the dreams of those who voted for him for what seemed like a programme to stratify and institutionalise northern hegemony by reducing others in public life to second-class status… He has pursued this self-defeating and alienating policy at the expense of greater national cohesion.”
In its statement, the Christian Association said, “If criticism against a Muslim president today is an incitement to violence against Islam, it then means that those who were criticising the duo of former presidents, Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan, when they were in power were actually attacking Christianity.”
It said, “some groups of people have been threatening (Bishop Kukah) with fire and brimstone while all relevant security agencies are pretending as if nothing unusual is happening.”
The statement said, “We wonder if those threatening the Catholic bishop of Sokoto are above the law or if they are sacred cows in the country.” The Christian Association added, “We call on President Muhammadu Buhari and all the security agencies to ensure that no harm befalls the Catholic bishop of the Sokoto Diocese,” adding that “as far as the Christian Association of Nigeria is concerned, what he said in his Christmas homily was still within the ambience of the law.”
The statement said, “We have had enough of bloodshed in the country, and we call on the security agencies to rise up to their constitutional responsibilities. Nothing must happen to Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah. Enough is enough.”
