Having come under heavy criticisms for alleged unequal treatment of different religious adherents in the state which resulted in the failure of the State Government to sponsor the 2019 Christian pilgrimage to Israel, Governor Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya has exonerated his administration from such perception saying that it was a paucity of funds that was responsible for what happened.
The Governor who gave the reasons the Christian Community in the state missed out from participating in last year’s pilgrimage to Israel said that “As a Muslim, I held the Qur’an and swore to do justice to all people, and so, if I do otherwise, I will face God and be held responsible for my actions”.
According to the governor who hosted the Christin Community on a belated Christmas and New Year homage on Thursday evening, his administration met a huge debt of over N280 million inherited from the immediate past administration for previous pilgrimage exercises which needed to be cleared before any other one can be done.
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He, however, assured that Christian pilgrimage to Israel from Gombe State had been a yearly programme in the past and vowed that his administration will continue with it subject to availability of funds to the government.
The governor then assured that “since we couldn’t make it for the 2019 pilgrimage, I assure you that we will not miss the 2020 Easter pilgrimage”.
While expressing his happiness over the relative peace that is being enjoyed in the state which he said was the reason why there is an influx of people from neighbouring insurgency ravaged states, he called on the people of the state to join hands and cooperate with security agents to keep the State peaceful and then announced a donation of N10 million gift to the State CAN.
Speaking earlier, the state chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev Ibrahim Joda, who led other Christian faithful, told the governor that there was no way Christians in the state will fight his government having played a prominent role in bringing the government into power.
He called on him to do justice to both Muslims and Christians as well as all the three senatorial zones of the State.
The CAN Chairman also called for a special prayer for the governor and his administration after which he presented a Holy Bible and Our Daily Manna (a Christian devotional book) saying, “read the Bible for yourself to prove all things about Christianity”.
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