Izuchukwu Okosi
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is poised to lodge a complaint to the United Nations and other international organisations over the extra judicial killings of Christians in parts of the country especially in the northern states reports Prime Business Africa.
This was disclosed by the Christian Association of Nigeria President, Pastor Samson Ayokunle on Monday in an interview with Arise TV’s The Morning Show crew.
Ayokunle reacted to issues surrounding the mindless killing of Deborah Samuel Yakubu, the Shehu Shagari College student who was stoned to death and subsequently burnt over a comment on a Whatsapp platform.
The late Deborah’s ‘crime’ was that she criticised the use of the Whatsapp platform meant for academic purposes in place of religious posts.
“If you look at the Human rights reports of 2022, it’s not good for Nigeria. In terms of human rights and religion and we’re not proud of that. Lack of freedom of expression and and speech has happened here,” the 7th CAN leader who became the Association’s head after Pastor Ayo Oritsejeafor began.
“That is not to justify what Deborah did in that College but it is to condemn the barbaric action that was taken against her.
“In this country, there’s democracy and we have a Constitution guiding our lives. If anyone has transgressed in whatever way – blasphemy or whatever – we’re not operating two laws. Nobody has the rights to take unilateral action and just terminate a life of another human being which he or she cannot create.
Ayokunle then warned ominously that such killings will not be tolerated again as the government has not adequately punished those perpetrating such heinous crimes.
“So if the Federal Government is not taking decisive action, bringing the culprits to book, then the entire world needs to hear. We need to appeal to the international community and organisations to help Nigerian Christians on this matter.
“Everybody has the rights to speech and if any body’s speech is perceived to be dangerous, hate speech or whatever, we have the law to handle that. Everybody cannot become law enforcement agents.
“This is very barbaric and annoying and must stop. No particular people have monopoly of violence. If we’re talking to the Government to be more decisive and they are not, then we need to cry out to the rest of the world,” the CAN leader stressed.
“Instigation to aggression depends on the degree of frustration. I know where the northern camp is coming from but CAN calls for more dialogue. We have to discuss this to prevent future occurance,” Ayokunle insisted.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.
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