Tell Boko Haram to stop attacking Christians, Anglican Primate urges Amnesty Panel

By Soni Daniel, Regional Editor, North

FOR peace to reign in Nigeria, the Boko Haram Amnesty Committee raised by the Federal Government must prevail on the sect to stop killing Christians and destroying their places of worship, the Primate of Anglican Communion, Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, has cautioned.

Okoh’s admonition is contained in a position paper released by the church and made available to Vanguard last night.

In the document entitled ‘The rough edges of the amnesty proposition’, the primate noted with concern the rush to grant amnesty to the BH sect without any form of truth and reconciliation, which he noted, should have preceded amnesty.

The Anglican Communion noted that although the motive of the Federal Government was to achieve peace in the north, ignoring the first steps that should have been taken would only result in the attainment of what it called ‘half peace’.

The church said: “If the Federal Government goes ahead through the amnesty committee to make peace on BH’s terms, it would have inadvertently and effectively banned Christians and Christianity from the North. In the amnesty committee, who will speak for the right of the church, not to be tolerated, but as Nigerian Christians to exist side by side with Islam and Muslims, build churches, worship freely, move about freely without being hunted down with all sorts of weapons?

”Will the amnesty committee ensure that Christians are not merely tolerated in the north but are allowed to live abundant life as Muslims as Christians do in other parts of the country?”

Comments are moderated. Please keep them clean and brief.