The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has expressed sadness over what it described as the unfortunate wastage of lives of unarmed young Nigerians who were protesting at the Lekki Tollgate in Lagos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The association\u2019s President, Reverend Samson Ayokunle, who expressed the shock while briefing journalists on Thursday in Abuja, said soldiers had no business with the peaceful protesters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ayokunle said that though the military had denied being responsible in spite of some glaring evidence and eyewitness accounts, their presence at the scene of the incident did not help their matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhoever ordered the shooting of unarmed citizens on legitimate protest in a democracy for whatever reason has crossed the red line and has caused more pains for this nation and many parents of these young and promising Nigerians, who would have been Nigeria\u2019s future glory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn very strong terms, CAN condemns the dastardly and callous act. It is a minus for our democracy and a scar to be remembered forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOn the other hand, we appeal to all Nigerians that the arson, wanton destruction of property and infrastructure that have followed the killings, though one understands that they came out of the provocative killing, should stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt would further inflict pains on fellow Nigerians who are either working in those facilities or deprive them the benefits which those facilities are providing on daily basis,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOne of such critical facilities is the Bus Rapid Transport (BRT) buses which are providing ease of movement to Lagos workers on daily basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOurs is a special appeal as spiritual fathers, priests and prophets to the nation, for calm to allow comprehensive peaceful resolution of this situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAn adage says, \u2018cutting off one\u2019s head can never be the right medication for a headache.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFrom the side of the government, let there be humility that the response to the protest by what happened on Tuesday night at Lekki tollgate was not good at all\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ayokunle, however, urged the government to speak soft words to the nation to calm the situation and assure Nigerians of immediate action if the situation repeats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He further advised the government to bring the uniformed men who killed the protesters to book, in order to ensure that those whose lives wasted got justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The CAN President called for effective dialogue among all the relevant stakeholders, especially opinion leaders such as the traditional rulers, religious leaders and leaders of various youth groups and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said there was the need for the bodies to come together to proffer solution to what he described as a \u2018great threat\u2019 to our nationhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWisdom is required and urgently too, so that things may not deteriorate further. We send our condolences to all the families who have lost their loved ones prematurely in this unfortunate incident. We pray for the comfort of the Holy Spirit for them all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe advise the government to compile the list of those killed nationwide during this protest, especially those shot dead on Tuesday and compensate their families, as a way of identifying with them and ameliorating the pains of the irreparable loss. \u201cIt is our prayer that our country will rise from this terrible experience to be a better nation, where the law enforcement agents are humane and thoroughly professional in the discharge of their duties,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has expressed sadness over what it described as the unfortunate wastage of lives of unarmed young Nigerians who were protesting at the Lekki Tollgate in Lagos. The association\u2019s President, Reverend Samson Ayokunle, who expressed the shock while briefing journalists on Thursday in Abuja, said soldiers had no business with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[96],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/christianassociationofnigeria.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/can8.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianassociationofnigeria.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2598"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianassociationofnigeria.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianassociationofnigeria.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianassociationofnigeria.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianassociationofnigeria.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2598"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christianassociationofnigeria.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2599,"href":"https:\/\/christianassociationofnigeria.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2598\/revisions\/2599"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianassociationofnigeria.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2595"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianassociationofnigeria.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianassociationofnigeria.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianassociationofnigeria.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}