Northern CAN knocks Buhari over Zamfara massacre

The northern chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has slammed President Muhammadu Buhari over the killing of more than 200 people in Zamfara State last week, saying the administration had failed in protecting Nigerians.

Buhari, while condemning the Zamfara massacre on Saturday at a national prayer session organised by the Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, said the government was unrelenting in its efforts at tackling the challenges, adding that Nigeria needed a divine intervention to end the Boko Haram insurgency, banditry and other social vices plaguing the country.

“There is a need to seek divine intervention for the Almighty to bring an end to the challenges,” the President said.

In a statement on Sunday issued by CAN Vice-President for the Northern region, Rev. Joseph Hayab, the body said Buhari has failed to live by his promises and wondered if such promises were only made to please Nigerians with no hopes of keeping them.

Read also: Northern CAN lambasts Buhari, say Nigerians are hungry, unsafe, frustrated

The group said, “Between January and December 2021, about 9, 196 people were killed, 3, 857 Nigerians were kidnapped. Of these, about 70 per cent of the victims are from the North including the President’s home state of Katsina where the governor has asked citizens to buy arms to protect themselves. This is an admission of failure.

“It is sad that this is what Nigerians now face daily. We commiserate with the victims. The Buhari government lacks the capacity to do anything. There are terror apologists in the APC and the government knows them. In 2015, they imported foreign terrorists into the country for the purpose of gaining power.”

He continued, that “Governance has fallen in many states today in northern Nigeria and the Federal Government needs to do something urgently before the worst will happen.”

CAN also joined prominent Nigerians who had called for a state of emergency in the North so as to curb the menace of insecurity in the region.

“The call for a state of emergency in the North-East cannot be over emphasized.

“But sadly, the body language of Mr President and those surrounding him does not show they care and expecting them to declare a state of emergency is a wasted appeal because nothing about them shows they care,” the statement said.

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