After Muslim Youths attacked and vandalised St. Philip’s Catholic Parish, Christian Leaders Spit Fire
A group of Muslim youths, Friday, attacked and vandalised St. Philip’s Catholic Parish, Baki Iku, which is very close to Zuma Rock in Niger State.
According to eyewitnesses, some Catholic faithful who had gone to the church to pray, were attacked by the Muslims, who claimed that Friday is their day of prayer and that the church only has the right to worship on Sundays.
Information gleamed by Sunday Telegraph indicated that the invaders destroyed some church property – including doors and windows – prompting the Christian worshippers to flee in different directions to avoid being killed Unfortunately, by the time some soldiers did manage to get to the scene, a lot of damage had been done to the building.
Incidentally one, Alhaji Kabiru Sokoto had on Christmas day four years ago, detonated a bomb that killed several Catholics and passers-by at St Theresa Catholic Church, Madalla, which is located close to St. Philips Catholic Church. Rev Fr. Luka Sylvester Gopep, the Vicar-General of the Diocese confirmed the incident.
He said: “Sometime around 2pm, some Muslim youths in their hundreds left their Mosque after their Friday Jumat prayer and rushed to the Church premises, climbed the wall and destroyed everything in the Church: the windows, the alter, musical instruments, the chapel.
The security man guarding the church was beaten to a pulp. Some women who were holding a prayer meeting were chased away. The seminarian, who is resident in the premises was also beaten up and chased away.” This is the latest in the wave of attacks on Christians and their churches in the northern part of the country. Only last week, Mrs Eunice Elisha Olawale, a mobile preacher of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, was killed by some fanatical Muslims in Kubwa, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
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