Church bombing: JNI warns against religious colouration of security issues

The Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) has warned Nigerians to avoid cloaking security issues in religious garbs, ethnic and political sentiments.

JNI Secretary General Dr. Khalid Abubakar Aliyu issued the warning in a statement yesterday, saying, “criminal acts are crimes and their perpetrators must be dealt with as criminals. It doesn’t matter whose ox is gored.

“Issues of security must be accorded all the seriousness they deserve at all levels.

“Nigerians must be careful not to politicise security matters, trivialise them or base them on ethnic, religious or regional lines.”

He also noted that the shocking news of the attempted bombing of a church at Sabon Tasha in Kaduna last Sunday by one Nathaniel Samuel would have been a trigger for another violent conflict, had it not been intercepted by the Nigeria Police Force.

Lamenting the security situation in the country, he said “JNI under the leadership of His Eminence, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, Sultan of Sokoto and PresidentGeneral, is worried and pained by the renewed and escalated magnitude of insecurity in the country, and the North in particular, as seen from the wanton destruction of lives and property, rampant kidnapping, armed robbery and brigandage, as well as the menace of drug abuse, and other social vices.”

He called on the government to punish those he described as “unscrupulous elements who are enemies of peaceful coexistence in our dear country.”