By Roseline Ojiugo
Information reaching us has it that the Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Nasarawa State, Bishop Joseph Masin was yesterday kidnapped by gunmen at his residence in Lafia, the state capital.
Yohanna Samari, a former secretary of the association in the state told to journalists that, “Unknown gunmen stormed the residence of the CAN Chairman at Bukan Sidi in Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital, and took him away to an unknown destination between. He disclosed that the incident happened around 11:00p.m. on Wednesday, and 12 midnight.”
Mr. Bola Longe, the state Police Commissioner confirmed the incident, said abductors took him away on a motorcycle. He stated that the police were on the trail of the kidnappers to ensure the immediate release of the CAN chairman unhurt.
Christians in northern Nigeria for some time now have become targets of all manner of attacks by fanatics and Islamic extremist groups such as Boko Haram. Recall the story of the Christian teenager, Leah Sharibu was abducted from her boarding school in north-eastern Nigeria by an Islamist group with other girls. Her abductors later released other girls that was kidnapped with her but refused to release her till date because of her refusal to convert to Islam.
Earlier in the year, Boko Haram also beheaded Lawan Andimi, the Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Michika, Adamawa State with the government doing little or nothing. But Muslims in the South of Nigeria go about their religious worship without any molestation. A resident of Lafia in the area from where Bishop Joseph Masin was kidnapped called on the government to do something about this sort of religious motivated kidnappings and killing of Christians in northern Nigeria.
The woman who would not want her name mentioned for obvious reasons told our correspondent that, “The federal and state government especially in the north should do something to protect Christians that are living in the northern part of Nigeria. In as much as Christians cannot be callous by resorting to the killing of Muslims in the South, it is also important to note that nobody has the monopoly for violence.
“The government must not wait until Christian youths in the South begin to nurse the idea of reprisal killings of Muslim clerics that are in the South. Enough of this mentality that everybody must be a Muslim because if Christians also insist that everybody in Nigeria must convert to Christianity, you can see that Nigeria will degenerate,” she said.
