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)
