Killings: Be Prepared for Food Shortage, Poverty, PFN Warns

Sylvester Idowu in Warri

The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) has warned that there will be serious food shortage and poverty if the spate of killings continue in the country.

National Vice Chairman of PFN, South-South Chapter and Bishop of Flock of Christ Mission, Rev. Dr Simeon Okah gave the warning saturday, noting that if nothing “is done to stop the killings against farmers, Nigeria will be faced with serious food shortages and poverty.”

Okah recalled that recent reports by the United Nations and Amnesty International had justified his earlier stand that the Federal Government “is encouraging Fulani herdsmen by its lukewarm attitude to security in the affected areas as well as unwillingness to apprehend and prosecute the perpetrators.”

He therefore called on Nigerians “to take political actions by mobilising to remove any administration that is insensitive to the security of lives and property of Nigerians.”

Okah lamented that in spite of obvious failures of the security agencies,
President Muhammadu Buhari “has continued to retain the security chiefs. It is sad that in spite of public outcry over the killings in Benue, Taraba, Adamawa and Nasarawa states, this recent killings took place again in Plateau state.

“There is no meaningful attempt to stop the killings which went on for seven hours as reported. None of the attackers were apprehended while the operation was on,” he said.

Okah said the attitude of the president “suggests that the deployment of security agencies after the attacks is more to protect the perpetrators and their tribesmen than the victims of the attacks.”

He lamented that many of those arrested by the security agencies were those protesting the attacks or those mobilising to defend themselves.

He, therefore, called for urgent need for more vigilance and unity of purpose amongst Christians in the South, the people of the Middle Belt and other well meaning persons in the North who are genuinely against the killings.

While noting that they must continue to condemn the killings going on in the nation, Okah challenged the federal government “to take
positive action to stop the killings.

“We must continue to urge the international community to take action to protect the lives of defenceless citizens who are daily been slaughtered in their homes at midnight,” Okah said.