A Christian organisation under the aegis of the National Prayer Altar on Sunday called on the Department of State Services to invite for questioning high-profile individuals whose comments fuel violence and killings in the communities under their jurisdiction.
According to the organisation, people who made reprehensible hate speeches that leads to religious and political conflicts in communities should be questioned by security operatives.
The NPA jointly coordinated by Pastor Bosun Emmanuel and Prof. Kontein Trinya, is a daily trans-denominational prayer initiative of Christians from the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria, Christians in the diaspora, as well as nationals of other countries.
The organisation started on April 18 2022 and has sustained its daily online prayers since then. Participants in the daily online prayer, according to the organisation, are in the hundreds.
The NPA made its position known in a statement issued in Abuja and signed by Bosun Emmanuel (South West), Kontein Trinya (South-South), Sylvester Mbamali (South East), Linda Ndache (North East), Alabi Mojirade (North Central) and Hauwa Kure (North West) on behalf of 174 Nigerians from all the geopolitical zones and the Diaspora.
The statement said, “Certain politicians and their agents have lately been heard making statements that verily amount to reprehensible hate speech. Their comments not only strongly indict them of complicity in the genocides that have ravaged their communities but also have the potential to further stir the religious and political intolerance that has made Nigeria one of the most terrorised nations in the world.
“Unless the appropriate national security agents are ethnically and religiously biased, they should interrogate those persons the same way they have been known to readily summon lesser others accused of volatile incitements.
“The blatant infringement on public peace by such otherwise respectable high-profile persons is where the strident voices of Christian leaders should have been heard, demanding their prosecution or the explanation of their incendiary claims that have been trending on social media.”
The group alleged that in Southern Kaduna and all over the country, several thousand have been killed and countless Christian communities sacked by the Fulani militia often dubiously masked as ‘herdsmen’, adding that unfortunately, the condemnation of those atrocities by certain clergies and politicians has been less than deserved.
The organisation also raised concern over the manipulation of ethnic sentiments during the 2023 general election saying none of the key actors in the election were ethnic candidates.
The NPA said, “We are concerned about the obvious manipulation of ethnic sentiments for political advantage in the country. This social virus is deliberately being resuscitated by self-seeking individuals to the detriment of unity and peace in Nigeria. The candidacy of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is not a Yoruba agenda, neither is the candidacy of Mr. Peter Obi an Igbo agenda.
“The attempt to manipulate an impression that the Yoruba people entirely support Asiwaju Tinubu as their ‘own’ is a mischievous political game.”
It noted that many Nigerians have expressed their exasperation with the government of the APC and the PDP in the past twenty-four years.
“In the same vein, the attempt by some errant Igbos to give the impression that Mr. Peter Obi is an Igbo candidate is equally out of place. That candidate has had the support of progressive Nigerians all over the world; in fact, the support of progressive people everywhere in the world.”
The group also wants the Independent National Electoral Commission’s Chairman, Yakubu Mahmood interrogated over the conduct of the 2O23 general election.
“It is imperative that INEC be interrogated about its handling of the 2023 elections, and the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Yakubu Mahmood, be properly investigated unless this public officer is beyond the laws of the land. The appropriate human and civil rights organisations in the country should commence a process toward that interrogation, as precedence in future electoral engagements,” the group said in the statement.
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