National President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. Samson Ayokunle, has called on the Federal Government to urgently address the security challenges in the country to avoid a possible civil rebellion.
Ayokunle made the call, in Jalingo, Taraba State, on Thursday, during a visit to the state to provide relief materials to victims of herdsmen attacks in the state.
The CAN leader said that the continuous attack on helpless farmers that often lead to regrettable loss of lives and property and displacement from their homes was totally unacceptable and the seeming indifference on the part of government to bring the perpetrators to book was a clear call to civil rebellion.
He urged the Federal Government to not only provide security for the people but to also arrest those responsible for these criminal acts and investigate their sources of arms and ammunition.
In his words, “The time has come for us to begin to pay higher premium on human lives.
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“We cannot continue to have people killed and displaced from their ancestral homes for no fault of theirs while the government seem to turn a blind eye to a of these.
“This is an invitation to civil rebellion that would be too much for the government to handle. You must understand that no one has the monopoly to violence.
“These herdsmen attack with sophisticated weapons and operate with impunity. The government should provide adequate security for the people and make sure that the perpetrators are arrested and the sources of their arms and ammunition thoroughly investigated.
“If this is not done and the people resort to self help, I don’t see how the government would be able to contain it.
“If the government cannot handle the situation, then the respective states should be allowed to set up their own security systems to battle the situation.”
Earlier, the leader of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps, in Jalingo, Mr. Dauda Marafa, informed the CAN president that he lost over 100 IDPs in January alone due to lack of food and other basic necessities of life.
He said that the “people would have preferred to return home to their normal life but the insurgents are been shielded and so any attempt by the people to return home often leads to more deaths”.
It was gathered that the CAN leadership donated relief materials to the IDPs to ameliorate their plight and urged the people to continue to support the IDPs in their time of difficulty, while assuring them that their “period of affliction was over and the power of resurrection would break the chain of the oppressor”.