The Christian Association of Nigeria has frowned at President Muhammadu Buhari for claiming that at least 90 per cent of victims attacked and killed by Boko Haram terrorists were Muslims.
Buhari had made the comments while paying tribute to Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Michika, Adamawa State, Pastor Lawan Andimi, who was beheaded by Boko Haram members recently.
The Nigerian President insisted that it was false to claim that Christians were the primary targets of Boko Haram insurgents.
Buhari said, “Indeed, it is the reality that some 90 per cent of all Boko Haram’s victims have been Muslims: they include a copycat abduction of over 100 Muslim schoolgirls, along with their single Christian classmate; shootings inside mosques; and the murder of two prominent imams. Perhaps it makes for a better story should these truths, and more, be ignored in the telling.”
Reacting, CAN President, Reverend Supo Ayokunle, in Ibadan, Oyo State, called on the Commander-In-Chief to rise up to his huge assignment of providing safety for Nigerians.
Speaking through its Director of Legal and Public Affairs, Kwamkur Samuel, CAN said, “The Christian Association of Nigeria notes with pains President Buhari’s unfounded, false, provocative and misleading assertion that 90 per cent of Boko Haram victims are Muslims.
“On reading this misleading and provocative statement coming from the number one citizen of the country, one will hardly doubt that the President understands the difference between the real victims and perpetrators of the heinous crime against the Church and humanity.
“No wonder Boko Haram is getting more attention from the Federal Government in the name of rehabilitation and de-radicalisation than the victims who lost their lives, loved ones and living in the internally displaced persons’ camps.
“What is the source of the President’s records? He should bring out his records with figures and the Christians will present theirs! Is he calculating the figures brandished by security chiefs as victims killed by Boko Haram; killed during operations?
“We are so sure that even if the President combines the number of Muslim victims plus the number of the terrorists killed by the army, it cannot be up to half the number of the Christian victims of the insurgents.
“The sole purpose of Boko Haram is the killing of Christians and Islamisation of Nigeria.”
