“Make ready for them all that you can of force and of warhorses, so that by them you may strike terror in the enemy of Allah and your enemy, and others beside them whom you do not know.” (Qur’an 8:60)
“Attack On Churches: 35 pastors abducted/killed in 17 months,” by Luminous Jannamike, Vanguard, June 19, 2022:
It’s quite a herculean task to get one’s head around how many Christians have been attacked, abducted and killed already in 2022. Though one might hear about individual events like the Owo church attack, it is quite tough to get a sense of the scale.
After terrorists set off explosives at St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State two weeks ago, the blood of 38 innocent worshippers who were murdered in cold blood was splashed on the ground around the whole of the church.
The Owo attack, according to eye witnesses, featured an unusual amount of planning and coordination characterized the violence as multiple gunmen inside and outside the church shot parishioners before escaping in a getaway car.
Painfully, the attack on St. Francis Church was not the only one that jolted Christians in Nigeria. In fact, more than 100 worshippers were killed that week across the country.
A few days before the Owo incident, suspected militants killed 32 Christians in an Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) parish in Kajuru, Kaduna State. After the attack, the church members could not attend service due to the trauma. The attackers reportedly arrived and left on inconspicuous motorcycles.
In Plateau State, which borders Southern part of Kaduna State, two Christian students were killed after Sunday service when suspected terrorists visited the school hostel at night and killed the two male students.
Barely seven days ago, 11 Christians were murdered in Benue State’s Igama community in Okpokwu Local Government Area in what many consider as religious persecution.
When the Prelate of Methodist Church Nigeria, His Eminence Samuel Kalu Uche, and two of his acolytes were recently abducted by armed men, his congregation of nearly two million people quickly mobilized over a N100 million ransom for their release.
In five bags, the representatives of the church stashed local currencies to the tune of N20 million each and dropped off at a designated place which the kidnappers picked up later in a truck without number plate.
The money was the price to free the three clerics who were taken at Umunneochi in Abia State while on their way to catch a flight to Lagos….
