Vanguardngr:
185 churches razed in Borno, Adamawa captured towns
The Director of Catholic Social Communication of Maiduguri
Diocese, Rev. Gideon Obasogie has said that two months after
the capture of 11 towns in Borno and Adamawa states by Boko
Haram, residents could not return to their houses and places
of worship, as 185 churches in the diocese were torched and
190, 545 people displaced.
Obasogie disclose this, Monday, in a signed press statement
tagged “state of captured towns;” and made available to
newsmen in Maiduguri, the state capital.
According to the statement, the “ransacking and torching” of
churches in the captured towns and villages, have already
displaced many priests, and are taking refuge in either Yola or
Maiduguri metropolisis for the last one or two months.
He said the capturing of towns along with the torching of
about 185 places of worship is, “sad, heart arching and
potentially dangerous to the territorial integrity and common
good of Nigeria.”
The statement also reads in part: “It is over 30 days now that
our Church communities in Gulak, Shuwa, Michika, Bazza……
were sacked by the callous attacks of the Boko Haram
terrorists. While Gwoza and Magadali had been under the
tyrannical and despotic control of the terrorists and this is
almost the sixtieth day.
“Our Priests are displaced, while citizens, who were supposed
to celebrate their independence as a free Nation, were rather
counting their losses and regrets as they had been reduced to
the status of Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs. Where is the
freedom?
“Life is really terribly difficult. We are waiting eagerly to go
back home, even as it is obvious that we are going to
reconstruct our looted and burnt houses and ecclesial
structures.
We have been sacked for months, sleeping in uncompleted
buildings, camps and school premises. We have been
absorbed into houses of relations and friends
in sixties and seventies.”
On displaced priests and residents, Obasogie said: “Meals time
is always difficult and shameful. We have counted weeks
rolling into months, must we also count years? We are waiting
to go back home!
Nigerians are waiting to go back to their ancestral homes!!! .
Our minds are greatly troubled, do we think about our status,
Or about our family members yet to be connected with ever
since we fled our homes?”
The statement also queried: “Do we worry about our aged
parents who were not so strong to run, they always fed us with
words of encouragement and wisdom.
Do we worry about our sick members, women and infants
who had been trapped? Most of whom we heard had been
rape and killed. Or worry about the health, education and
future of our children? We have got a lot of questions yet to be
answered.”
On re-opening of closed schools, Obasogie said: “Talking about
resumption, our children have not been fed and well clothed
so resumption to schools is practically out of our calculation.
In our opinion if thousand of Nigerian children can’t go to
school then in the long run “boko is really haram.” Then their
future is at stake,
quite bleak.
The health condition of our people is truly troubling in
their displaced camps in Maiduguri, Mubi, Yola, Uba, Gombe,
Biu and Damaturu.
“While our people perish inaction, or rather slow action is
what we get. Political activities in neighboring communities
were on-going as though nothing were a stake.
The seemingly not so much talked about syndicate would
someday be a yoke on all. Lately, three councils of Bama, in
Borno state; Madagali and Michika in Adamawa state and their
Local Govt. Chairmen were all sacked.
“The Shehus and Emirs (on -throne)- were overturned, this
amounts to what I would rather refer to as (cultural coup),
since unknown figures have been placed in such capacities.
Thousand displaced, many killed, and others forcibly
conscripted. These are pointers that Boko Haram terrorism is
not just a northern problem, but a Nigerian problem and in
fact a global issue.
As a church we are really going through a severe moment of
persecution. The ecclesial circumscription is facing sharp
disintegration.

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