Killings: IBB, Oyedepo, Bakare demand action

Pentecostal giants David Oyedepo and Tunde Bakare yesterday called on the Federal Government to stem the killings in the country.

Former military President Ibrahim Babangida also demanded an end to the bloodshed.

President Muhammadu Buhari will today meet with leaders of thought in Benue State, who will be led by Governor Samuel Ortom, at the Aso Villa.

Benue has been grieving since January 1 when people were killed in an invasion by herdsmen.

Seventy-three bodies were given a mass burial last Thursday in Makurdi, the state capital.

The meeting is expected to tackle the menace and expected to also bring up the issue of states arming militia.

President Buhari met last night with Senate President Bukola Saraki and Speaker Yakubu Dogara over security.

The presiding Bishop of the Living Faith Church Worldwide, otherwise known as Winners’ Chapel, Bishop David Oyedepo, has warned the Federal Government to halt the killing spree by herdsmen or risk the country’s disintegration.

He likened the attacks to a time bomb and warned politicians not to “sell off the destinies of men for your ambitions”.

Dr. Oyedepo said God revealed to him 26 years ago that this crisis would put the country “on a keg of gunpowder” if the government failed to act.

He gave the warning yesterday  in a message titled “A wakeup call to a nation in a state of slumber”.

He said: “Prophets have a duty to warn people, nations against impending danger.

“I have this wake-up call for a nation in a state of slumber. Insurgency is spreading across the country under the guise of Fulani herdsmen. Danger is looming.

“How many of these killers have been brought to book since their campaign of carnage, death and destruction began?”

Oyedepo warned that a nationwide crisis, “worse than anyone around knows”, might be imminent.

He said: “Where are the leaders of thought in Nigeria? Where is the government and this is continuing unabated? We are sitting on a keg of gun powder. There is a volatile reaction coming and God revealed this to me as far back as 1992, clearly written in my diary.”

But, prophesying that “Nigeria shall not be destroyed,” Oyedepo called on God to “trouble all that trouble the peace and progress of this nation”.

According to him, Nigeria’s destiny has never been under a worse threat of survival.

He said: “People may soon be forced to take the law into their hands. The security apparatus of the country has obviously failed to defend the property and lives of these poor farmers.

“While we are claiming to be curtailing Boko Haram, we are on the other hand aiding and abetting herdsmen and their murderous acts.

“Nigeria is a nation at war with ourselves.  No external aggression from aggressors, no ethnic crisis, no natural disaster, yet we are doing mass burial. What a nation in a state of slumber.

“Hear the voice of God through this prophet, the soul of Nigeria is near the point of death.”

Oyedepo warned that the attacks might push every community to set up its own security system to defend itself against “the insurgency”.

He said: “When citizens cannot trust the security system, a state of anarchy is in view. Insurrection may also be on the way. These largely unchecked activities of the Fulani herdsmen may eventually choke the soul of Nigeria to death, God forbid.”

The Bishop challenged the government to probe how the killers escape and how they are able to secure funds to buy AK47 rifles which, according to him, cost N3million apiece.

“They must have the backing of some powers that be. Any right thinking Nigerian will speculate same,” he said.

As the Bishop spoke, the congregation applaud. When he said there would be no war, there was a thunderous “amen”. Many stop up to pray as the congregation was directed to pray against “those troubling Nigeria”.

 

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