CAN to FG: Sack Borno, Adamawa, Yobe governors

The Christian Association of Nigeria in the 19 northern states have called on the Federal Government to consider the declaration of a full fledged state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States.
It also called for the replacement of the civilian governors overseeing the states with military administrators.
The CAN made the call over the weekend while speaking through its Executive Secretary, Prof. Daniel Babayi.
The position was contained in a remark by Babayi, who was the guest speaker at the inauguration of the newly-elected executives of the Niger State chapter of the organization and the commissioning of a newly-constructed administrative block by the state chapter of CAN in Minna, the Niger State capital.
According to Prof. Babayi: “If the half state of emergency thing is not working because the governors are still in place and they are still the Chief Security Officers of the affected states, the Federal Government should remove all of them and put Military Administrations there so that when we succeed in the whole thing, the governors should be reinstated back to their seats.
“We are not against them, but we want peace to be restored in those places.”
The CAN Executive Secretary stated further that the governors have not been sensitive to the peculiar needs of Christians in their states, adding that the northern states chapter of CAN is not happy about that.
He said: “There must be respect for everybody because if we respect their religion, they should also respect our religion too.
“I will tell you the truth.
“You see, when you say Boko Haram, the name means anything about Western education that includes Christianity.
“So they have a Fatwa against Christianity and every Christian is supposed to be a target.
“But it is not every Muslim that is supposed to be a target.
“It is only those that are cooperating with Christians and those that are sympathizing with Christians or those who are opposing the sect members that should be killed.”
Prof. Babayi further argued that whenever the terrorists group was looking for any of the people mentioned above and they cannot find them, they then set ablaze a whole village, stressing that the Boko Haram’s number one target is a Christian.
He added that the recent kidnap of students of the Government Girls Secondary School at Chibok in Borno State by the Boko Haram sect members and the general insecurity in the Southern Borno Local Governments was still part of that ongoing hatred and campaign against Christians.
He said: “We are not happy that the Borno State Government and the rest of the authorities in the state did not do anything much to stop what was going on in the state.
“Even when the WAEC officials told them that it was risky to allow the students to write their final year exams in such an unsafe environment, the state governor said they should go on and conduct the exams and that is not fair.”
Babayi asked: “How come, a place that is predominantly Christians, the Principal is a Muslim, the Vice Principal is a Muslim and the Chief Security Officer of the school is also a Muslim?
“Muslims in Borno State ought to have respect for other people and their religions.
“Will they tolerate that if Christians are sent to their areas?
“In fact, they have not been sensitive to the peculiar needs of Christians in their midst and we are not happy about that because there must be respect for everybody.”