From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Co-Chairman, Interfaith Dialogue Forum for Peace and Methodist Church Bishop, Sunday Onuoha, has warned against invitation of another civil war by some individuals through utterances and actions.
The warning was in response to actions, inactions and unguarded utterances by some highly placed Nigerians, coupled with the poor handling of criminal elements in the country.
Bishop Onuoha called on Nigerians irrespective of political, religious and ethnic divide to be careful in drawing lines of argument, stressing that Nigeria was yet to recover from the civil war 51 years after.
He recounted with nostalgia, his childhood experiences and pain during the civil war, revealing that such despicable experiences are ever new in his memory, adding that it has made him dislike anything that could lead to war as such will only distabilize the country and relegate to the background, all that past and present leaders have fought so hard to keep.
Bishop Onuoha, thus, charged the Federal Government to fish out criminal elements destroying farmlands, raping women, kidnapping people in different parts of the country, adding that these vices do not, in anyway, represent the traditional cattle farmers known by Nigerians.
He reiterated that Government must, as a matter of urgency, identify such unscrupulous elements terrorising Nigerians and provide security to Nigerians as they go about their legitimate businesses in different parts of the country, insisting that once injustice and insecurity remain unchecked, people would subscribe to self protection in defending their lands and property.
The Bishop registered his with the level of quit notice(s) given to groups/individuals in some parts of Nigeria, stressing that such notice(s) if not properly handled could cause war between groups, urging Government at all levels to mediate in such situations to forestall a breach of peace in the zone and Nigeria at large.
