1st July, 2022
PRESS
RELEASE:
INVESTIGATE
KIDNAP OF 21 MUSLIM CHILDREN BY ECWA CHURCH – MURIC
An Islamic human rights organisation, the Muslim
Rights Concern (MURIC), has asked the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and the
Director General of the Department of State Services (DSS) to investigate the
circumstances surrounding the discovery and eventual rescue of 21 Muslim
children from a building belonging to the Evangelist Church Winning All (ECWA) in
Jos.
It will be recalled that the DSS recently raided a house located at JMDB quarters, in
the Tudun Wada community of Jos North LGA of Plateau State, where the
operatives rescued 21 Muslim children. The victims alleged that they were
forcefully brought to the house and converted to Christianity.
The General Secretary of ECWA, Rev. Yunusa Nmadu, has also
confirmed that the house in which the victims were kept was under the custody
of the Church. (https://www.crimechannels.com/how-dss-operatives-rescue-21-almajirai-boys-kidnapped-camped-inside-church/).
In a statement issued by the Muslim rights advocacy group,
MURIC, the organisation expressed shock at the criminal implication of the
discovery and demanded full investigation. The statement was issued on Friday,
1st July, 2022 by the direc tor of MURIC, Professor Ishaq Akintola.
The full statement reads:
“We are bewildered by reports that 21 Muslim children were rescued by the DSS from a
building belonging to the Evangelist Church Winning All (ECWA) in Jos. The
children were abducted from Gombe and forcefully brought to Jos.
“They had
been kept for about six months before one of them escaped and sought help from a
mosque in Jos. During captivity, they were forcefully converted and their Muslim
names were changed to Christian names.
“This is like one
of those stories from the movies. It is appalling. We are dealing with a highly
sophisticated and meticulously planned conspiracy. The diabolical objective is
to decimate Muslim population in Nigeria and eliminate Islamic landmarks
wherever they exist.
“It is not a new phenomenon. This wicked plot has
been in operation for several years without the Muslims suspecting anything. We
recall the Kano 9 saga in which nine Muslim children were kidnapped from Kano
and taken to Onitsha where their names were changed to Christian names. They
were eventually rescued on Friday, 11th October 2019.
“The Kano 9 brouhaha
is verifiable because it was in the news. See https://www.africa-press.net/nigeria/all-news/ganduje-speaks-on-kidnap-of-9-muslim-children-in-kano;
https://www.channelstv.com/2019/10/13/police-rescue-nine-kidnapped-children-in-anambra/.
“Just as we
are condemning the atrocity of ECWA church today, MURIC kicked against the abduction
of those nine Muslim children from Kano in 2019. https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/10/muric-seeks-justice-for-9-kidnapped-kano-children-kicks-against-kidnapping-for-christ/;
https://dailypost.ng/2019/10/14/islamic-group-attacks-christians-kidnap-9-muslim-children-kano/).
“It was Kano in 2019. It has happened again in Gombe in 2022
and in a larger number. We are of the opinion that it has become a recurring
decimal. It is widespread. If you discover one, hundreds of cases must have gone unnoticed.
Nigerian Christians are using all available methods to eliminate Islam. They
know no rules, no decorum. Fair or foul, what matters is to capture all Muslims
in the Christian den. Blackmail, mischief, deceit, subterfuge, abracadabra, anything
goes. The more you look, the less you see.
“Any Muslim in
distress becomes an easy target. Any offer of help from them to a Muslim is a concealed
trap. Any admission into their school is an invitation to deprivation of
personal identity and the surrender of one’s civil liberties. Proselytisation
is being pursued with such astonishing aggressiveness.
“To the average Nigerian Christian today, except for
very few of them, the only good Muslim is the ‘liberal’ Muslim. Yet to them,
the only ‘liberal’ Muslim is the one who surrenders his Allah-given fundamental
human rights and drops all aspects of his Islamic identity.
“That explains the raison d’etre for the daily abduction
of Muslim children for the purpose of forceful conversion. The Nigerian church
is now deeply entrenched in widespread kidnapping for Christ, all in an attempt
to fulfil the Nigeria for Christ Agenda.
“We therefore call on the security agencies to protect Muslim
children from the evangelising marauders. Our children are no longer safe. Muslim
parents are deprived of their tender ones. We are made to undergo severe pain
and excruciating agony by our Christian neighbours in their ‘Lets go Fishing’ campaigns.
“They use exploitation, capitalisation and extortion in the
South West to forcefully convert Muslim children and jobless Muslim youth to
Christianity. But it is kidnapping that they use in the North. Whereas you can
read Nigerian Muslims like a book, our neighbours are calculating,
conspiratorial, secretive and stealthy.
“Nigerian Christians are fighting tooth and nail to
ensure that they increase the number of their followers. This is because the larger
the congregation, the higher the day’s collection and the more souls they win, the
higher the tithe. What is at play here is pecuniary benefit, including social
and political influence.
“To those friendly Christians who have no such hidden agenda, we
doff our hats. We urge them to continue in their good relationship with their
Muslim neighbours. We need each other for the progress of our dear nation. No
bird can fly with only one wing.
“MURIC charges the press to fulfil its obligation
of fair and balanced reportage. We are worried that whereas any negative
incident concerning Muslims is given full publicity and even blown beyond
proportion by the Nigerian media, those involving Christians are hardly
mentioned. We see no reason why the kano 9 of 2019 and this Jos 21 cannot receive
the same media hype as witnessed during the Ese Oruru imbroglio of March 2016. Selective
attention is unethical.
“We demand full investigation into the abduction of the 21 Muslim
children found in ECWA church in Jos. This ECWAgate must be properly
investigated. There must be no sacred cow. This is a scandal that should not be
allowed to be swept under the carpet. We therefore call on the Inspector
General of Police and the Director General of the Department of DSS to launch their
investigations into this messy affair. Nobody must tamper with the available
evidence.”
Professor Ishaq Akintola,
Director,
Muslim Rights Concern,
(MURIC)
