The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has asked President Bola Tinubu “to take deliberate action to stop the killings” in Benue State.
Attacks believed to have been carried out by herdsmen have claimed many lives and scores render homeless.
The apex Christian body expressed concerns over the lack of a solution to the bloodshed in Benue and other parts of the country, demanding action from the government.
CAN National President, Daniel Okoh, said this when he led a delegation of Christian leaders on a condolence visit to the state yesterday following the recent killings.
The Archbishop, represented by Vice President Stephen Baba, sympathised with the state government and the families of those who lost their loved ones.
He said: “We are deeply concerned that no solution has been found to end the killings in Benue State.
“We are calling on President Bola Tinubu to take deliberate action to stop the killings.”
Okoh said the violent attacks in Benue, Plateau, Kaduna, Zamfara and parts of Sokoto are a test of the government’s ability and willingness to end the violence. He added:
“The President, governors and security agencies must not fail this test.
“Ethnic cleansing of Christian indigenous communities in Benue must be stopped.”
Deputy Governor Sam Ode, who received the delegation, said Benue is facing an “asymmetric warfare”.
According to him, the militants launch attacks and vanish without anyone seeing them. Ode said:
“We are dealing with a situation that is abnormal, what has confronted us as a state is an asymmetric warfare where you cannot say this is where the enemy is.
“These bandits will come and launch an attack and they will vanish, so you cannot even locate vanish, so you cannot even locate vanish, so you cannot even locate the enemies.
“But the intelligence community which is part of the government’s structure is not relenting, they are reorganising, they are re-planning and working out strategies to be more proactive.
“We don’t want them to strike before we go and condemn and begin to look for the killers.
“We can put preventive structures in place that will not allow them to do it at all.” The CAN donated relief materials to the victims of the attacks.
The items included 119 bags of rice, 121 bags of beans, nine cartons of maggi and nine cartons of Viva soap
