Northern Christian Youths Disown Arewa Pastors’ Endorsement of Buhari
Northern Christian youths on Sunday dissociated themselves from the activities of Arewa Pastors Peace Initiative in Nigeria (APPIN). The group condemned the pastors’ endorsement of President Muhammadu Buhari’s second term bid.
The youth, under the aegis of Confidence Christian Youths of Northern Nigeria (CCYNN), urged Christians in the region not to participate in APPIN’s activities.Its National Chairman, Agaba Jacob and Secretary, Paul Eneojo, disclosed this in a statement in Kaduna.
They claimed that the CCYNN, which is responsible for the coordination of the activities of Christian youths in the north, was not carried along.
“We call on the presidency and the general public to disregard the so-called delegation of Arewa Pastors, led by one Bishop John Abu Richard,” the statement said.
They urged Buhari and all Nigerians to disregard the Arewa pastors declaration, describing them as impostors. It declared that after a thorough investigation, the CCYNN discovered that:
“The real name of the leader of the delegation of the so-called Arewa Pastors, Bishop John Abu Richard is John Richard.
“He only added the ‘Abu’ to his name to deceive the president and gullible Nigerians that he is from the north.”
While questioning his identity further, they challenged Richard to tell Nigerians where he stays in the north and the church that he belongs to.
“Our investigation showed that he is based in Port Harcourt. Besides, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) had earlier disowned the Arewa pastors.“We are totally disappointed that a group of people who claimed to be pastors would visit the president without asking for the freedom of Leah Sharibu.
“It is worrisome that they did not also mention the 100 Chibok girls who are still languishing in the captivity of the Boko Haram terrorists, whose only crime is their religion.
“The Christian youths also expressed concern that the delegates, who claimed to be servants of God, did not ask Buhari to stop the unending killings in the communities that are predominantly Christians.”
The CCYNN leaders further disclosed that Richard has never been a bishop as he claimed. According to them, after the demise of Archbishop Benson Idahosa, who was the first Pentecostal Archbishop in Africa, the next one was Archbishop Sam Amaga, while in the north; the recognised first Pentecostal archbishop is Leonard Bature Kawas.
They added: “The Arewa pastors were so concerned with the 2019 elections that they forgot to tell the president that the primary duty of any serious government is to provide security to the governed, irrespective of their religious and ethnic affiliations.”
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