The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has urged the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) to avoid shielding Berom Christians over the Dura-Du pond incident where the car of a missing Muslim General, Idris Alkali, was found at the bottom of a pond after the army forcefully drained it.
The CAN President, Samson Ayokunle, on Monday defended Berom Christians over the incident as over 500 women made spirited efforts to stop the army from draining the pond by staging protests half nude.
Reacting to the development in a statement issued on Tuesday and signed by its director, Prof. Ishaq Akintola, said, it was disappointed with the failure of CAN to condemn the incident in Berom.
MURIC queried why CAN failed to condemn the Berom Christians, the same way that Muslims condemned Boko Haram.
“What has CAN President said about the missing General? What has he to say about the General’s car that was found right at the bottom of the same pond where the wives of terrorists protested deceptively? What of the other four cars that were found inside the same pond? What do the findings mean to him?
“To add salt to injury, CAN president referred to the missing General as “a missing ex-soldier”. That is an unforgivable understatement. Ayokunle should know that General Alkali (rtd) is more than an ordinary ex-soldier. This is a whole Army General for crying out loud and he dismisses him as “a missing ex-soldier”. General Alkali was the Chief of Administration in the Nigerian Army up till the time of his retirement. We take exception to this attempt to trivialise the issue.”
MURIC however cautioned both serving and retired senior military and police officers who are Muslims to take extra security measures around them, to avoid what it called regimented pattern of life.
Speaking further, Akintola urged the army to make safety of Plateau highways its priority.
The group charged the military to sustain its action in the Berom community adding that the killers and their sponsors must be found and dealt with according to the law.
“To find General Idris Alkali (rtd) dead or alive is a task that must be done. The Nigerian military has never been known to cowardly abandon a good cause or forsake camaraderie. There is no better way to prove the army’s professionalism and gallantry than in this case.”
