185 CHURCHES RAZED IN BORNO,ADAMAWA CAPTURED TOWNS

The Director of Catholic Social Communication of
Maiduguri Diocese, Rev. Gideon Obasogie has
said that two months after the capture of 11
towns in Borno and Adamawa states by Boko
Haram, residents could not return to their
houses and places of worship, as 185 churches in
the diocese were torched and 190, 545 people
displaced.
Obasogie disclose this, Monday, in a signed
press statement tagged “state of captured
towns;” and made available to newsmen in
Maiduguri, the state capital.
According to the statement, the “ransacking and
torching” of churches in the captured towns and
villages, have already displaced many priests,
and are taking refuge in either Yola or Maiduguri
metropolisis for the last one or two months.
He said the capturing of towns along with the
torching of about 185 places of worship is, “sad,
heart arching and potentially dangerous to the
territorial integrity and common good of
Nigeria.”
The statement also reads in part: “It is over 30
days now that our Church communities in Gulak,
Shuwa, Michika, Bazza…… were sacked by the
callous attacks of the Boko Haram terrorists.
While Gwoza and Magadali had been under the
tyrannical and despotic control of the terrorists
and this is almost the sixtieth day.
“Our Priests are displaced, while citizens, who
were supposed to celebrate their independence
as a free Nation, were rather counting their
losses and regrets as they had been reduced to
the status of Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs.
Where is the freedom?
“Life is really terribly difficult. We are waiting
eagerly to go back home, even as it is obvious
that we are going to reconstruct our looted and
burnt houses and ecclesial structures.
We have been sacked for months, sleeping in
uncompleted buildings, camps and school
premises. We have been absorbed into houses of
relations and friends
in sixties and seventies.”
On displaced priests and residents, Obasogie
said: “Meals time is always difficult and
shameful. We have counted weeks rolling into
months, must we also count years? We are
waiting to go back home!
Nigerians are waiting to go back to their
ancestral homes!!! .
Our minds are greatly troubled, do we think
about our status, Or about our family members
yet to be connected with ever since we fled our
homes?”
The statement also queried: “Do we worry about
our aged parents who were not so strong to run,
they always fed us with words of encouragement
and wisdom.
Do we worry about our sick members, women and
infants who had been trapped? Most of whom we
heard had been rape and killed. Or worry about
the health, education and future of our
children? We have got a lot of questions yet to
be answered.”
On re-opening of closed schools, Obasogie said:
“Talking about resumption, our children have
not been fed and well clothed so resumption to
schools is practically out of our calculation. In
our opinion if thousand of Nigerian children
can’t go to school then in the long run “boko is
really haram.” Then their future is at stake,
quite bleak.
The health condition of our people is truly
troubling in
their displaced camps in Maiduguri, Mubi, Yola,
Uba, Gombe, Biu and Damaturu.
“While our people perish inaction, or rather slow
action is what we get. Political activities in
neighboring communities were on-going as
though nothing were a stake.
The seemingly not so much talked about
syndicate would someday be a yoke on all.
Lately, three councils of Bama, in Borno state;
Madagali and Michika in Adamawa state and
their Local Govt. Chairmen were all sacked.
“The Shehus and Emirs (on -throne)- were
overturned, this amounts to what I would rather
refer to as (cultural coup), since unknown figures
have been placed in such capacities.
Thousand displaced, many killed, and others
forcibly conscripted. These are pointers that
Boko Haram terrorism is not just a northern
problem, but a Nigerian problem and in fact a
global issue.
As a church we are really going through a severe
moment of persecution. The ecclesial
circumscription is facing sharp disintegration.