Archbishop Benjamin sues for peace over Southern Kaduna killings

FOUNDER of the Resurrection Praise Ministry Worldwide, His Eminence Archbishop Samson Benjamin, has called on Nigerians and religious leaders in particular to exercise patience, and not overheat the polity over the spate of killings in some parts of the country, including Southern Kaduna.

The cleric, who met with the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris in Abuja on Monday, where the DIGs were also in attendance, assured that the police was up and doing, contrary to beliefs in many quarters that government and the security agencies were not doing anything to curtail the killings, or bring those involved to book.

This is just as he assured that President Muhammadu Buhari would meet with Christian leaders to speak on the killings once he returned from vacation, contrary to reports that the president had refused to meet with them, urging the Christendom to leave the door of dialogue open.

According to the Archbishop, in a statement on Tuesday, the police has made a number of arrests over the Southern Kaduna killings, and that the IGP is only bidding his time to make it known to Nigerians, even as he commended the police boss for being proactive.

Benjamin said the Kaduna State governor, Malam Nasir el Rufai, was also instrumental in the arrest of the suspects whom he revealed were about 50, with arms also recovered from them.

“The IGP is a pro-active policeman, and has only been bidding his time to let Nigerians know about the arrest of the suspect, as investigation, with a view to prosecuting them, is still on-going,” he said.

While calling on the security agencies to inform Nigerians more of what was being done to curb the killings and other forms of crimes in the country, Archbishop Benjamin, who is referred to as African Major Prophet, also called on religious leaders to preach more of peace, and not incite their followers, adding, that Nigeria needed peace.

Speaking further, Archbishop Benjamin said that the IGP gave his word that modalities had been put in place in the troubled areas to ensure such incidents of killings do not occur again.

Benjamin, while calling on Nigerians to give the government and the security agencies enough time to do their job, enjoined religious leaders not to incite people over the killings in the country until they knew the truth.

He also called on the police to initiate a peace forum, where it would intimate the religious leaders about its activities, and what it was doing to curb sectorial killings in the country.