The Evangelical Church Winning All, on Friday, expressed disappointment over the failure of President Muhammadu Buhari, to secure the release of Leah Sharibu and others still in Boko Haram captivity after many years.
The ECWA, at its 68th General Church Council meeting which brought together all the church leaders across the country including the Republic of Chad and the USA, stated this in a communique released on Friday at the end of the meeting which held at the Church headquarters in Jos, the Plateau State capital.
Leah Sharibu, a member of ECWA churcH, was taken hostage by Boko Haram insurgents at the age of just 14 from a boarding school in Dapchi in Yobe State alongside 19 other girls in February 2018.
Campaigners say Leah, who is now 17-years-old, is the only girl who has not yet been returned to her family despite several promises by the Buhari-led federal government to secure her freedom.
ECWA president, Stephen Panya, who read the communique, said, “Council expresses apprehension that despite all assurances by the Federal Government to secure our prisoners of conscience such as Leah Sharibu, Grace Lukas, Alice Loksha, Lilian Gyang, Pastor Polycarp Zongo, the remaining Chibok School Girls – these abductees and many others continue to remain in captivity. The council reiterates its call on the government to do more to produce tangible results.
“The Council also observed with worry the massive and forceful takeover of ungoverned spaces by criminals and non-state actors, who obviously seem to be in control in the country vis-à-vis the seeming inability of the government to decisively deal with the menace as well as protect the citizenry from these prowling merchants of death.
“More specifically, the Council notes the unabated attacks on Christian communities in the Middle Belt, the north, and other parts of the country and the needless destruction of lives and properties by Fulani Jihadist militia and Boko Haram. The Council cautions the government against the continuous politicisation of security matters.
“We condemn in unequivocal terms the systematic genocide being executed against Christian and other autochthonous communities throughout Nigeria, but especially in the Middle Belt.
“This is typically orchestrated through a continuous raid on Christian farming communities with lethal weapons, often in the dead of the night, wherein thousands of our people have been murdered in cold blood and their lands expropriated by the marauding aggressors.”
