From Femi Oyelola, Kaduna.
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Kaduna state chapter has lamented that Offerings that comes from Churches end up paying bandits as ransoms for the release of their loved ones.
The state CAN chairman Rev. John Joseph Hayab asserted this when he hosted the Executive Secretary, Kaduna State Pilgrim Welfare Agency, Mallam Yusuf Yakub Arrigarayyu yesterday.
According to him, people think it is well in Kaduna, but people just stop talking about kidnapping, saying they know very well that everyday, things are happening.
“ What we want now is how we can work together to restore peace in Kaduna and stop the pretence and face the reality of what is happening around us.”
The CAN state chairman stated that the Church wants every agency in the state to effectively work, but expressed dismay that the people are sick because of insecurity all over the state.
“The issue of going to pilgrimage, to us at CAN is not the priority, but our priority is how people can be secured and live peacefully. Christians in Kaduna state paid huge sums of money to bandits and l can’t see a group of Christians that have paid bandits millions of naira to again sponsor themselves to Jerusalem for the pilgrimage. It is not about going to Jerusalem, but it is about the restoration of peace in the state.”
Commenting on the establishment of the pilgrim agency, he explained, “It is the conventional practice Worldwide and according to law and practice that if you want to do anything that you want to establish an agency by law, you don’t do it by being coercive, you will ask the State House of Assembly by sending a bill. The House will have a first or second reading and then have a public hearing. We are stakeholders, a letter will be written to us and we will come as stakeholders and give our contributions on the issue supporting or against the establishment of the agency, then the House will vote, but in Kaduna, we are not governed by law but by coerse and whatever is given to us, we take it and nobody will talk.”
He added that the reason Christians no longer go to pilgrimage is because they are at the receiving end of the banditry, stressing, “In 2019 when this evil of banditry and kidnapping started, within a short time over 500 Christians were kidnapped and over N300 million was paid as ransom, this CAN did by issuing questionnaires and served about 1,500 Pastors for them to fill and tell us the number of members kidnapped, how much paid as ransom and those killed.”
Earlier, the Executive Secretary, Kaduna State Pilgrim Welfare Agency, Mallam Yusuf Yakub Arrigarayyu who was on a visit to the state CAN headquarters, said he was concerned with the small number of Christians performing pilgrimage to Jerusalem from the state, hence, the visit to CAN.
