National President, Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), Bishop Francis Wale Oke, has said Christian genocide in the country was real, but added that Nigeria needed help to curtail the rising spate of insecurity.
Speaking to journalists after an emergency executive meeting of the PFN at its national headquarters in Lagos, Bishop Oke stated that even though the killings of Christian faithful did not start with the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Pentecostal family regrets that the genocide has remained unresolved till date.
He blamed the killings of Christians in Nigeria on failure of leadership, maintaining that PFN had statistics of the various killings, kidnappings and destruction that were targeted at Christians.
According to Bishop Oke: “Nigeria is at a crossroads. If we get it right, we will soar to a great level and become a force to be reckoned with in the world. If we get it wrong, we will sink, and we do not want Nigeria to sink.
“There is Christian genocide ongoing in Nigeria. Even since this narrative began, killing was still going on in Borno, Plateau, and Benue up until yesterday. When many Christians were massacred in Dogonaya in Plateau State, what do we call that? They were killed for no offence other than they were Christians.
“When Christmas Day was turned a bloody day in Benue State, and hundreds were massacred, and we are to be conducting mass funerals, when we are not in open conflict. What do you call that? This is different from individual cases.
“Like the case of Leah Sharibu, where is Leah Sharibu? Like the case of Deborah Samuel Yakubu, that was lynched and burned alive in Sokoto? What about that, and several of our girls that were kidnapped and given out as wives by force without the consent of their Christian parents. And the Christian parents would not see them for years.”
Oke, however, urged the global community to help Nigeria combat insecurity in the country.
