CAN to drag Boko Haram to International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes committed against Christians

CAN President, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor

Outraged at the unrelenting killing of its members by the terror group, Boko Haram, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) is set to seek redress – legally and not through retaliation.

The Christian organisation intends taking its case to the International Criminal Court (ICC), a step which tallies with its position not to take retaliatory measures against Muslims.

The National President of CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, who disclosed this urged the Federal Government to name Boko Haram as a foreign terrorist group.

Oritsejafor spoke at the opening of CAN’s National Executive Council Meeting (NEC) in Awka, Anambra State Wednesday. According to him, Boko Haram has targeted Christians in attacks aimed at wiping out Christianity in the North and Nigeria entirely.

“We in CAN are strongly considering pressing charges against the Boko Haram sect for crimes committed against Christians at the International Criminal Court and we will commence soon. We are not encouraging Christians to carry arms,” he said. But he noted that CAN had always called on Christians and the churches to defend themselves.

He said: “We call on the governors of the southern states to come together and hold a meeting to know the fate of their people who are being killed in the North and to challenge their northern counterparts.”

According to him, without the measures put in by the southern governors, there will be reprisal attacks everyday, arguing that the northern governors should put the same measures in place.

In his speech, Governor Peter Obi called on the Federal Government to stop further killings in the North, saying that Nigerians should not allow people to be slaughtered anyhow in the North.

“We all desire that we must have peace. It is time for people to speak out against evil. Whatever the enemies of Nigeria desire they will never get it,” Obi said.

According to him, there is a decent way of doing anything, just as he suggested that Nigerian leaders should sit down and find a solution to the insecurity problem in Nigeria.