From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
Against the backdrop of incessant killings and kidnapping by terrorists in Kaduna State and the country in general, some pastors in Kaduna on Thursday took to the streets to protest killings by terrorists in the State.
Under the banner of the Interfaith Alliance, the pastors who occupied the popular Lagos Roundabout in the State capital, urged the Federal Government to take drastic actions against the terrorists who have continued to launch attacks on various parts of the State.
The protest came on the heeling of various terrorism attacks in the State in recent time, including sporadic shooting by terrorists in some parts of Kaduna city Thursday night.
The Clergymen, however threw their weights behind the State government, saying, “Some of the statements that the Kaduna state government has made such as bombing the forest, it is surely a welcome development but what we expect is that the government should carry out precession attacks.
“When you said carpet bomb, they can hide among innocent people. So if you carpet bomb them, innocent people will die. So we believe that the government monitor their movement through intelligence and carry out the bombing.”
The Clerics noted that, though the government is doing its best, the best wasn’t good enough, adding that it is high time the central government bombed the bandits out of existence.
They also appealed to the federal government to compensate all the victims of bandits attacks, award scholarships to children affected by the banditry and also rebuild communities ravaged by attacks.
This, the Convener of the Interfaith Alliance, Reverend Emmanuel Adebayo, said would ameliorate the sufferings of the victims and make them overcome the psychological trauma they passed through during the attacks.
With the hastag:#Kadunaprays#, Adebayo said the government should be more proactive in whatever actions that are being taken against the terrorists.
He said, “The essence of our gathering today is to put together what we refer to as ‘Kaduna prays’, a prayer work against insecurity. I am sure everybody knows that Kaduna is one of the states plagued by incidences of banditry and terrorism and various forms of criminality and of late, it has been on the increase.
“We believe that the government is doing their best but their best was not good enough. That’s why we have come out to seek for divine intervention concerning the issue of peace and security in Kaduna state and Nigeria at large.
“Obviously we are not satisfies with the way the government is going about insecurity at the federal level. However, we want to actually acknowledged the little efforts that have been made but we believe that more can still be done. Government needs to be preemptive.
“The government needs to be more proactive. We have been hearing about cry of our governor; he said he has been taken the reports to those concern; he said they know where they are and that they listen to their telephone conversation but the response from the security agencies are not good enough.
“So we are praying that God should touch their hearts to put in more efforts and to be more responsive so that this issue of insecurity won’t be more reactionary but be preventive and we pray that God will give them more wisdoms on how to go about it in Jesus name”.