December 31, 2023 NewsOrient
News
By Kelechi Eke

The Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Hassan-Kukah, has described continuous killings on the Plateau as “a war against the Nigerian State.”

He posits that the attacks and ruthless killings of innocent Nigerians are “beyond herder-farmer clashes.”

According to the cleric, the murderers “want their own kind of Nigeria according to their ideology.”

Kukah said in a statement, reportedly sent to Channels Television by his spokesman, Chris Omotosho: “The choice of location, communities, timings, the seeming hooded identities of the killers mask a fact: we may not know who they are, but someone wants something from the Middle Belt. Stretch your imagination from the emergence of the modern Nigerian state and connect the dots”.

Kukah states: “We may pretend that we are not at war, but truly, a war is being waged against the Nigerian state and its people. God forbid, but we could snap anytime, anywhere and for any reason …

“By the banks of the Niger river, on the hills of the Plateau, across the lush savannah of the middle belt, we have sat down and wept.

We have questions crying for answers: Who are these killers? Where are they coming from? Who is sponsoring them? What are their grouses and against whom? What do they want? Whom do they want? Who are they working for? When will it all end? Why are they invincible and invisible? Who is offering them cover?

Kukah further bemoaned why the north has become “the incubator of all that is destructive? Boko Haram, Banditry and shades of terrorism all live in our region,” he said, adding:

“Can we continue to believe that there is no long-term plan to take over the reins of power of the Nigerian State? These people want power. They want it on their own terms. They want their own kind of Nigeria according to their ideology.

“These killings are just a preface. These killings are no longer acts by herders and farmers over grazing fields. No, there is more and we as a nation will do well to face this threat before it is sunset.

“No evil lasts forever. The world defeated Slavery, Apartheid, Nazism, Racism, and forms of extremism,” he said.

~ NewsOrient