{"id":24960,"date":"2020-02-28T13:02:48","date_gmt":"2020-02-28T12:02:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=24960"},"modified":"2020-02-28T13:02:48","modified_gmt":"2020-02-28T12:02:48","slug":"fg-says-boko-haram-killing-christians-to-cause-religious-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=24960","title":{"rendered":"FG Says Boko Haram Killing Christians to Cause Religious War\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rotimi Ijikanmi<\/strong> (NAN<\/strong>)
\nThe Federal Government says Boko\u00a0Haram insurgents and their ISWAP allies have\u00a0changed their strategy, targeting Christians and Christian villages\u00a0to trigger a religious war and throw the nation into chaos.
\nThe Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed raised the alarm at a media briefing on Thursday in Abuja.
\n\u201cRecall that Boko Haram insurgents didn\u2019t use to discriminate between Christians and Muslims when they carried out their attacks in the past.
\n\u201cChurches and mosques, Christians and Muslims were attacked\u00a0without discrimination.
\n\u201cWhen they targeted motor parks, the religion, gender, ethnicity or political leaning of the victims didn\u2019t matter, as long as they inflicted the maximum damage to lives and property.
\n\u201cBut in the wake of a renewed onslaught by our tireless military\u00a0against Boko Haram and their ISWAP allies in recent times, the\u00a0insurgents have apparently changed their strategy:
\n\u201cThey have started targeting Christians and Christian villages for a specific reason, which is to trigger a religious war and throw the nation into chaos.
\n\u201cApparently, they have realised how emotive and divisive religion can\u00a0be, when exploited by unscrupulous persons,\u201d he said.
\nThe minister noted that the insurgents, who deluded themselves as Muslims, were nothing more than \u201cblood-thirsty, rapacious killers who subscribe to no religion\u201d.
\nHe stressed that they were deliberately targeting Christians to sow the seed of confusion between the two religions.
\nThe minister buttressed the government\u2019s position with the\u00a0attack on a Christian village, Kwarangulum, near Chibok and the\u00a0killing of the Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN)\u00a0in Michika local government in Adamawa, Lawan Andimi.
\nHe also cited the incidence of the killing of Nropvil Daciya Dalep, a student who was also a member of the Church of\u00a0Christ in Nations (COCIN); and the killing of 11 Christians on\u00a0Christmas Eve.
\nMohammed said that some had misinterpreted the attacks to insinuate a systematic campaign to persecute Christians in the country.
\n\u201cThis is absurd, and very unfair to the men and women who are daily battling the insurgents.
\n\u201cThe truth is\u00a0that, having run out of options in their battle against Nigeria, the\u00a0insurgents are desperate to stay relevant, to stay in the news, hence\u00a0their cowardly and senseless strategy targeting Christians, as part of\u00a0their increasing resort to the use of Guerilla tactics,\u201d he said.
\nThe minister appealed to religious leaders, both\u00a0Christians and Muslims, not to fall for the desperate move by the\u00a0insurgents or allow them to divide the country and weaken the\u00a0resolve to deal the insurgents the mortal blow.
\nHe also canvassed for their\u00a0unalloyed support to the military, which he said had also upped\u00a0the ante against the insurgents.
\n\u201cThe resort to the increasing use of\u00a0Guerilla tactics by the insurgents is a sign of weakness on their\u00a0part.
\n\u201cContrary to the belief in certain quarters, these insurgents are\u00a0getting weaker by the day, thanks to the gallantry of our men and\u00a0women in uniform.
\n\u201cWe therefore, appeal to our leaders, especially religious leaders, not to fall for the antics of Boko Haram and ISWAP, who are trying to divide us along religious lines by targeting Christians for attacks.
\nMohammed added:\u00a0\u201cThis is the last desperate move by a\u00a0decimated and disillusioned band of killers and psycopaths to stay\u00a0relevant amid constant decimation by our gallant troops,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cWe have what\u00a0it takes to come together and foil this divisive and satanic strategy.
\n\u201cWe appeal to Nigerians to support the military as it moves to\u00a0decapitate the insurgents.
\n\u201cSecond-guessing the military at this time\u00a0is like playing into the hands of Boko Haram\u201d.
\nMohammed stressed that the\u00a0renewed vigour by the military in their war against the insurgents was paying off, judging by the victories they\u00a0recorded in recent times.
\nHe listed the successes to include, the killing of top ISWAP leaders at two separate meeting venues at\u00a0Marte Local Government in Borno State and a\u00a0successful attack against the leadership of Boko Haram\u00a0in Alafa Yagayaga in Borno earlier in the month.
\nThe minister also cited the killing of Boko Haram Chief Judge in Lake Chad and the\u00a0in-fighting in the leadership cadre of Boko Haram which he said was a fallout\u00a0of the pressure on the insurgents by the military.
\nHe also identified the continued foiling by the military of many attacks by Boko Haram, the\u00a0continued decimation of the insurgents across the North-east and the\u00a0inability of the insurgents to hold any territory as it was\u00a0in the past.
\nHe said, apart from fighting insurgents, the military\u00a0had also continued to carry out developmental programmes in the North-east,\u00a0as part of efforts to win the hearts and minds of the populace.
\nMohammed said the military had engaged in road\u00a0and bridge construction and repair; provision of potable water and scanning of roads and highways to detect planted IEDs and keep the roads safe
\nHe said the military also engaged in teaching in schools where there is shortage of teachers and provided\u00a0educational materials, including books to schools.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rotimi Ijikanmi (NAN) The Federal Government says Boko\u00a0Haram insurgents and their ISWAP allies have\u00a0changed their strategy, targeting Christians and Christian villages\u00a0to trigger a religious war and throw the nation into chaos. The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed raised the alarm at a media briefing on Thursday in Abuja. \u201cRecall that Boko […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":16561,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5772,7],"tags":[1165,676,314],"class_list":["post-24960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-faith","category-news","tag-christians","tag-fg","tag-killing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24960\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}