Nigeria’s radical Islamic Terrorist group has executed another Christian leader, the Revd Lawan Andimi, the Christian Association of Nigeria Chairman in Michika, Adamawa State.
The Revd Andimi is from Kwada village in Chibok, the same local government area of Borno State where 276 schoolgirls were abducted in 2014.
The Revd Andimi was kidnapped on 2 January when Boko Haram attacked the village. Military sources said no life was lost in that attack though a security man at his house was killed. Andimi later appeared on a propaganda video released on 5 January in which the Christian leader pleaded with the Adamawa State Governor, Ahmadu Fintiri, to negotiate his release. In the video, Andimi thanked his captors for their kind hospitality and hoped to be released but added that God, ‘who made them to act in such a way is still alive and will make all arrangements, by the grace of God I will be together with my wife, my children and my colleagues. If the opportunity has not been granted, maybe it is the will of God … I want all people near and far, colleagues to be patient. Don’t cry, don’t worry, but thank God for everything.’
The Church of the Brethren, in a communique from its 65th General Assembly held at the United Church of Christ in Nations, 7-13 January 2020, pleaded for the his release and condemned the beheading of 11 Christians in Borno State on the excuse of vengeance for the killing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, ISIL leader, and Abul-Hasan Al-Muhajir, its spokesman, by the United States in October.
Response
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has called all Christians to a worldwide weekend of prayer and procession for the protection of Christians in Nigeria. Dr Samson Ayokunle, the CAN President, addressing the press in Abuja on 23 January, said, shortly before Andimi’s beheading, that Boko Haram ‘demanded the sum of N50 million (£110,000) and when, against all odds, the ransom was ready they asked for €2million. It was in the process that they reached out to our people in Adamawa State to notify them that since the gentleman had refused to be converted to Islam, they had decided to behead him. And that was what they did.’
The CAN President went on to say ‘last Sunday, a clergyman, [the] Revd Denis Bagauri, was murdered by unknown gunmen in his residence at Mayo Belwa of Adamawa State, all because he was a Christian. You are also aware of the beheading of 11 Christians by Islamic State in West Africa on Christmas Day of 2019 in Maiduguri, including a bride-to-be. [A] few days ago, four seminarians of the Good Shepherd Catholic Seminary in Kakau were kidnapped along Kaduna-Abuja Road and we have not heard anything about them.
‘In Kaduna State, the most recent happenings were those of 35 people killed and the abduction of 58 persons when bandits raided ten communities in the Chikun and Birnin Gwari Local Government areas on 13 January, 2020.’
Ayokunle noted that terrorist Islamic groups ‘are unleashing terror on selected Christian communities, while sometimes our security agencies appear to be looking elsewhere. It is usually after the evil has been done that our soldiers and policemen invade the communities, and in many instances the victims are locked up while the criminals are left untouched.’
He added: ‘This is reprehensible, unacceptable and unprecedented since Nigeria came into being. Christians have become an endangered species in their own country. From 1980 to 2019, the Stephanos Foundation’s record shows a total of 1,785 attacks in 32 States of the country. This led to the death of not less than 28,878 innocent people. Up till today, no one has been brought to book. Instead, it was those who cried out that were subjected to State harassment.
‘These terrorists have not hidden their goal to Islamise Nigeria. Their primary targets are Christians. It will be difficult for us to believe that the Federal Government under the present administration is not colluding with the insurgents to exterminate Christians in Nigeria.’
The church leadership declared 31 January to 2 February 2020 as days for Special Fasting and Prayer for Nigeria in all churches, home and abroad, for the gruesome killing of innocent Nigerians to stop and for the government to develop capacity to overcome the criminals troubling the nation.
The killing of the pastor was followed by the execution, shown on a propaganda video, of a Christian student, Ropvil Daciya Dalep, from Jos, Plateau State.
Sunday 2 February, 2020 was declared a Special Prayer Walk by Christians in all the States of the Federation.
Research
A number of senior Christian leaders, including senior Anglicans, in Nigeria are researching, with the Oxford Centre for Religion and Public Life and Barnabas Fund, the roots of such violence, the attempts at reconciliation, and options to ensure the security and safety of the Christian communities in north and north west Nigeria. Since such aggression is taking place throughout Africa, where church leaders are largely ill-equipped in how to respond, these institutions are launching in May a Master’s Degree in Religion and Culture, with a focus on Political Islam, with Pretoria University in South Africa for those who will then teach such a course in universities and colleges throughout Africa.
