Fiery Plateau State clergyman, Rev. Ezekiel Dachomo, has challenged the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) to show evidence that Christians in the country have been killing Muslims and to also show the graves where such killed Muslims were buried.
As the debate over the killing of Christians especially in the Middle Belt region continues to rage leading to US President Donald Trump designating Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern”, followed by a threat of a military intervention, the NSCIA, in a statement issued by its Secretary General, Prof. Is-haq O. Oloyede earlier on Tuesday, insisted that there has been no case of Christian genocide in Nigeria. He instead posited that some Christian militia groups, particularly in Plateau and Benue States, have also killed Muslims in their thousands.
Part of the NSCIA statement reads thus:
“We reaffirm that there is no ‘Christian genocide’ in Nigeria. Under Article II of the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide 9 and Article 6 of the Rome Statute 11, the crime is defined by a critical “mental element” known as dolus specialis. This is the specific “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such”. There is nothing of the sort in Nigeria.
“For the avoidance of doubt, what Nigeria faces is a complex and tragic perennial security crisis that brings immeasurable pain to all its citizens, regardless of faith or ethnic persuasion. From Katsina to Borno and from Benue to Plateau, as well as in Kaduna and Kwara, Nigeria bleeds through gruesome savagery against Muslims and Christians, Imams and priests. Non-partisan experts have refuted this blackmail, and Amnesty International, which methodically investigated the insecurity in Nigeria, has stated that there is “no evidence of a religious motivation” to characterise it as genocide.”
But in an interview with News Central TV on Tuesday night, Rev. Dachomo threw an open challenge to the Islamic body to give evidence where Christians killed Muslims in Plateau State or other parts of the Middle Belt region.
“Muslims are claiming that they are killed, that we also kill them. Ask them where we kill them?” Look at the recent killings, look at this child that was killed, and you are saying it is not a genocide.
“When they came shouting Allahu Akbar, they beheaded a Christian and licked the blood,” the cleric alleged.
Rev. Dachomo, the Regional Chairman of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of Plateau State, went on to give instances where he had to conduct mass burial for hundreds of Christians who were slaughtered by Islamic extremists and bandits, and offered to take any fact finding team to such graves and also give a comprehensive account of the killings to buttress his allegations.
He alleged that members of the Boko Haram insurgent group who claimed to have repented were being absorbed into Nigeria’s security agencies.
“The repentant Boko Haram members have been recruited into the Nigerian Army, Air Force, and Police. That’s why Christians must have a say in politics,” he said.
Rev. Dachomo also expressed confidence in his sources and reaffirmed his support for international action to end the cycle of targeted killing of Christians
“I have insiders who give me information. I’m over 100% in support of President Donald Trump’s intervention because the Nigerian government’s hands are tied. The world needs to know that what we are saying is not false.
“I will go to any length to prove that this government is lying. We are also planning to take Nigeria before the ICC and sue the Miyetti Allah association for their role in these atrocities.
“Hundreds of lives have been lost in attacks on Plateau villages that were never documented, and many victims remain unaccounted for.
“Since the Federal Government claimed there was no genocide, that statement has pushed me to intensify this work. CAN is also denying the genocide, so I’m determined to prove them wrong.
“Many of the affected villages were never recorded, even though there are graves. I have been moving from one grave site to another. In Jaruwa, worshippers were burnt alive during a church service. None survived because the terrorists surrounded the building, set it on fire with gas lamps, and trapped everyone inside.
“I’ll compile all these incidents into a report and present it to the world to show that genocide is happening in Nigeria,” he added.
