Over eight thousand church members and eight pastors have been lost to the decade long Boko Haram insurgency. The President of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria known as Church of the Brethren in Nigeria, Reverend Joel Billi disclosed this to news men at a press conference in Yola, the Adamawa State capital.
The clergy man who has a membership base of two million people said the church has been ravaged by Boko Haram and about;
- 25,000 members have become refugees in Cameroun and Chad
- with over 700,000 in Internally Displaced Persons camps
- Over 1.5 million members were affected by the activities of the non-state actors
This number is said to be increasing on a daily basis. EYN is considered as the largest indigenous Christian denomination in the North East region of Nigeria.
Reverend Joel Billi said;
“About 300 of the 586 churches have either been burnt or destroyed with an unaccountable number of houses belonging to our members looted or burnt too.”
The Clergy man also said, only Seven out of the church’s 60 District Councils were not affected directly by Boko Haram.
While, 217 out of the abducted 276 Chibok School girls were from his church
Reverend Billi called on President Muhammadu Buhari to rescue the school girls from Chibok who have been in captivity for years. Just as he lamented that so many villages are still under the control of the terrorists.
“I also call with a loud voice on the Federal Government under President Muhammadu Buhari to rescue Leah Sharibu, Alice Loksha and Hundreds of others abducted by the Boko Haram. Government should deploy more security personnel to volatile areas to mitigate further attacks”.
President Muhammadu Buhari was also told to deploy troops to deserted areas behind Gwoza Hills to facilitate the return of thousands currently displaced by the insurgents.
Just as the clergy man has demanded, rebuilding the North East which includes the reconstruction of houses, schools, places of worship which was destroyed by the terrorists should be prioritized by the government.
