The Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) has sounded a dire alarm over the escalating wave of banditry, kidnappings, and savage killings across the country, describing the situation as intolerable.
In a statement delivered on Sunday at the conclusion of a three-day national fast and prayer session, the PFN called on all Nigerians to seek divine intervention while also demanding immediate and effective action from the government.
The National President, Bishop Francis Wale Oke, represented by the Kaduna State chairman, Bishop Musa Dasikwo, lamented the nation’s apparent paralysis in the face of mounting atrocities.
“Several Chibok girls remain in captivity years after their abduction by Boko Haram. Leah Sharibu is still shackled for refusing to renounce her Christian faith, yet the Nigerian state has done nothing,” Bishop Oke said. “Student Deborah Samuel was burned to death in Sokoto simply for mentioning the name of Jesus. Her killers walk free.”
He added that Taraba, Plateau, Benue, and Southern Kaduna have become “daily killing fields,” while Edo, Kogi, Ondo, and Kwara have also suffered attacks, with entire communities sacked by rampaging bandits armed with sophisticated weaponry.
The PFN president also noted the growing crisis in Oyo State, where a teacher, Mr. Michael Oyedokun, was beheaded and another shot dead following the abduction of several students and teachers.
Bishop Oke criticised what he termed “an apparent lack of firm political will” to crush these evils, accusing the government of issuing empty promises while insecurity spreads unchecked.
“Nigerians are sick and tired of this evil and the misplaced focus on winning elections by all means,” he said. “Instead of deploying the full weight of the law and federal might, our government is rehabilitating so-called repentant Boko Haram killers and even drafting them into our security network.”
He warned that the ongoing violence does more than take lives: “It fractures national unity, scares away investors, drives our best minds abroad, weakens the bond between citizens and the state, and creates a wave of insecurity that makes Nigerians feel unsafe in their own country.”
The PFN urged the federal government to fulfil its constitutional and moral duty to protect every citizen, regardless of tribe or religion, so that Nigeria may truly become a nation where no one is oppressed.
