Northern christian youths say Arewa Pastors Peace Initiative in Nigeria are impostors

From: Femi Oyelola, Kaduna

Christian youths from the 19 Northern states under the aegis of Confidence Christian Youths of Northern Nigeria (CCYNN) has called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the general public to disregard the Arewa Pastors Peace Initiative in Nigeria (APPIN), describing them as impostors.
The group stated this in a statement signed by its National Chairman and Secretary, Comrade Agada Jacob, National Chairman and Apostle Paul Eneojo, respectively and made available to the media in kaduna yesterday.
CCYNN said as an umbrella body that coordinates the activities of Christian Youths in the north, they are calling on the presidency and the general public to disregard the so called delegation of Arewa Pastors led by one Bishop John Abu Richard to the Presidency.
The statement added that after thorough investigation they discovered that, “The leader of the delegation of the so called Arewa Pastors, Bishop John Abu Richard’s real name is John Richard, he only added the Abu to his name to deceive the president and gullible Nigerians that he is from the North.
“We challenge John Bishop to tell us where he stays in the north and the church he belongs to, because our Investigation shows that he is based in Port Harcourt”.
It would be recalled that the Christian Association of Nigeria had before now disowned the Arewa Pastors, CAN had said, in a statement that “We are totally disappointed that a group of people who claimed to be Pastors will be visiting the President without asking for the freedom of Leah Sharibu and over 100 Chibok girls who are languishing in the captivity of the Boko Haram terrorists, whose only crime is their religion.
“We wonder why these supporters of our President, who claimed to be Servants of God, would not ask him to stop the unending killings going on under his watch in the Christian predominant communities in the North Central and some states in the South. They were so concern with the 2019 election that they forgot to tell the President that the primary duty of any serious government is to provide security to the governed irrespective of their religious and ethnic affiliations.”
However part of the statement by the youths said,” We want to state categorically that he is not a Bishop and has never been a Bishop. Let it be known that after the demise of Arch Bishop Benson Idahosa, the first Pentecostal Arch Bishop in Africa, the next Pentecostal Arch Bishop in Nigeria is Arch Bishop Sam Amaga and the first Pentecostal Arch Bishop to be installed in Northern Nigeria is Arch Bishop Leonard Bature Kawas.
“The council of Bishops is the most organized clergy group in Nigeria, therefore let it be known that in the cause of our investigation neither Arch Bishop Sam Amaga nor Arch Bishop Leonard Bature Kawas know the said John Richard as a Bishop.
“Consequently, the leadership of CCYNN wants to bring to the notice of the general public that Northern Pastors are people of integrity, uprightness, and of high moral standards that cannot be involved and will not indulge themselves in any scandalous or fraudulent activities.”