Anglican Primate says politicians should help fight terrorism

Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh

Anglican Primate says politicians should help to fight terrorism

The Primate of the Anglican Church of Nigeria, Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, has called on political leaders, religious leaders, and traditional rulers to assist government in tackling security issuesin Nigeria, rather than seeking cheap popularity.

Okoh made the call when he led a delegation of the communion to pay a condolence visit to Rev. Father Isaac Achi, the Parish Priest of St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, Madalla, Niger State, where a bomb went off on Christmas day, killing some parishioners.

The primate urged political leaders, and political office holders at both federal and state level to assist government in solving the paste of bombing in the country.

He warned politicians not to take the advantage of the current insecurity to gain any cheap popularity, but to support government in finding appropriate solution.

`There are some politicians who want to make cheap points out of the whole issue. Any politician who is credible enough should help Nigeria to solve this type of problem of insecurity and make his mark in the leadership of the people; in selfless leadership, not in cheap popularity.”

He added``In fact, if they go on along the path of cheap popularity they will be discrediting themselves and their political careers.

``It is important therefore for them to come out, help the government to secure Nigeria so that the Nigerian project can be a state benefit.

The primate, who decried the Christmas day bombing, urged governments, traditional leaders, sectional leaders and religious leaders to take urgent steps to bring the situation to an end.

Primate’s plea

``To the government, please help us. This is about the most critical stage in the development of this crisis so that the righteous man will not be tempted to put his hands to do evil.”

``If we get to a point when people begin to think of vengeance, that stage will be a terrible stage, but we are concerned about the future of our country, that whatever happened there must be a Nigeria, whatever calculations we make, there must be Nigeria."

``Apart from the government, I want to make sincere appeal to the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs to please help us, it’s in charge of all Islamic denominations in Nigeria; it should do something about this matter."

He emphasized``It is not enough to disassociate itself from the bombing, it is not enough to condemn the act, it must take some pragmatic steps to bring this situation to an end.’’

Okoh also urged government to fish out those who were compromising national security, saying: ``I believe there are some destroyer elements in the system.’’

The primate prayed for the church and its members, who lost their relations to the attack and for the peace of the nation and expressed the sympathy of the Anglican Communion over the attack.

Blast Victims toll

Rev. Fr. Achi, commending the primate, members of the delegate and the entire Anglican Communion for the visit, described the attack as the highest bomb blast in the history of Nigeria.

He said the number of causalities was now 27, as one of the victims receiving treatment in a hospital died on Friday morning, while the number of those receiving treatment was now 72.

Achi added that accurate number of those still missing would not be ascertained until after Jan. 1, but that six parishioners were currently missing.

He also thanked God that the suicide bomber didn’t find his way inside the church building saying that it would have been more disastrous as more than 5,000 persons worshipped in the church, every Sunday.

The Anglican Communion presented a condolence letter and an undisclosed amount of money to the priest to assist the church.

NAN/Ugo