THE Holocaust against Christians in the northern part of the country showed no sign of abating as 13 of them who resisted attempts at being forced to join Moslem worshippers for evening prayers were killed, execution-style by those who said they were commissioned by “Allah” to completely Islamize Nigeria.
The Christian Association of Nigeria, already distracted by infighting and accusations of leadership compromise, said in Abuja that it took note of the latest progrom allegedly perpetrated at Sheka Compound, Sharada Phase II, Kumbotso Local Government Area on Saturday March 2, 2013.
The leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Kano State told journalists on Wednesday that all thirteen factory workers lived in the same compound after their suspected Boko Haram members stormed the expansive yard at about 7pm.
According to the Christian Association of Nigeria chairperson for the state, Bishop Raneh Bello, the only survivor of the attack, name withheld, now in hiding, recalled that the Boko Haram killers came in two commercial cabs and opened fire, shooting indiscriminately at the end of which men, women and children numbering 13 fell.
“Reports of the attack reaching us disclosed that on that fateful Saturday at about 7 p.m, Muslim faithful were conducting their prayer close to the affected compound occupied by Christian families, when two taxi cabs stopped in front of the compound and the occupants, who all concealed their arms dashed into the complex and demanded to know why the residents were not part of the 7 p.m. Muslim prayer.
“They responded by telling the visitors they were Christians and so could not be part of the Muslim gathering. At that point, they separated the men from their wives and children and shot them dead on the spot after ordering the women and children into their homes. The 13th victim, who hid in a dark alley in the compound, surrendered himself, following threats by the gunmen to visit the same fate on the women and children if any man was found shielded,” Bello recounted.
Bishop Bello expressed surprise at the official silence on the high profile mass murder. But to expect empathy from the administration in Kano State would be, according to sources around the locality, a misplaced expectation. Governor Rabiu Kwakwanso was one of the earliest shariarist in Nigeria in 1999.
Some of the fleeing refugees from Kano State, after being displaced in wake of a similar targeted killing in 2012, said that it would be reasonable to think the the choices of Kawanwaso as a minister of defense in 2007 “possibly led to serious security breaches” that has helped the festering of sectarian bloodshed in Nigeria.
Rabiu Kwanwaso has never tried to openly condemn the senseless violence by unprovoked Islamic cultists.