The Arewa Consultative Forum has urged dreaded sect, Boko Haram, to take the legal steps to address its grievances rather than resorting to violence and killing.
The ACF in a statement yesterday, signed by its Publicity Secretary, Anthony N. Z. Sani, also expressed displeasure at the reprisal attack that followed the bombing on Sunday of the Church of Christ in Nigeria in Jos, for which Boko Haram has claimed responsibility.
The statement by Sani reads in part: “And because such attacks are not within the tenets of any religion, ACF appeals to perpetrators to stop the mindless killing of innocent people and avail themselves to due process of law and constructive engagements in addressing any perceived grievances.
“Arewa Consultative Forum seriously frowns at the spate of bomb explosions directed at innocent Nigerians, including worshippers, as symbolised by those in mosque in Kano, Cocin Church in Jos and those of prisons in Gombe, that have been credited to Boko Haram.
“The forum is also not happy with the reported reprisal attacks, precisely because the attacks by both Boko Haram and reprisals are directed at innocent people who are not party to any perceived grievances of the feuding parties.
“For those who have lost loved ones and sustained injuries, ACF prays God to give them the fortitude to bear the loss as to Nigerians of all religions, all nationalities and of all political stripes, to come together and live up the collective challenges posed by insecurity across the nation.”
Meanwhile, two more persons have died from injuries sustained in Sunday’s bomb attack on COCIN in Jos.
They are said to be a a one-and-half-year-old girl and a teenager.
They died at the Jos University Teaching Hospital.
This brings to 10 the number of casualties.
The figure was confirmed by a Deputy Inspector General of Police, Haruna John, who visited the church and hospital to commiserate with the victims.
At a press conference on Monday, the President of COCIN, Rev. Soja Bewarang, said a Navy Blue Volkswagen Vento (Sedan) accompanied by two military personnel dressed in a camouflage, was escorted through the church security network deployed in strategic positions from the Central Bank axis to the Hill Station roundabout axis of the Fidelis Tapgun road by an STF Hilux pick-up vehicle.
Bewarang said: “Meanwhile, there was another military personnel readily standing at the church gate requesting the church security to open the gate for two personnel to drive in.
“The church security refused to oblige his request; the vehicle rammed into the gate, hitting everyone on his path and made for the church auditorium.”