President Buhari has appealed to Christians in Nigeria not to allow the execution of 11 Christians by the Islamic State West Africa Province, ISWAP, t
President Buhari has appealed to Christians in Nigeria not to allow the execution of 11 Christians by the Islamic State West Africa Province, ISWAP, turn them against Muslims. The president said this in reaction to a fresh video released by the terrorist group, showing the killing of some Christians in captivity.
The video, released on December 26, is said to be timed to coincide with Christmas celebrations. The 56-second video was produced by Amaq, IS’ news agency. It was filmed in an unidentified outdoor area. The video showed 13 hostages, 11 said to be Christians while the remaining were Muslims, all male. The group claimed that they spared the lives of two of the Muslims.
ISWAP said the government had failed to successfully negotiate their release, which led to their execution. They added that the deaths of the Christians was to avenge the death of their leaders. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, IS’s late leader and Abul-Hasan Al-Muhajir, its spokesman, were killed in Syria in late October. The insurgent claimed the victims were “captured in the past weeks in north-eastern Borno state”.
To this end, Buhari urged Nigerians not to allow insurgents divide them along religious lines. In a statement by Garba Shehu, presidential spokesperson, Buhari described the execution as evil. He added that his administration will not lower its guards in the war against terrorism.
“I am profoundly saddened and shocked by the death of innocent hostages in the hands of remorseless, godless, callous gangs of mass murderers that have given Islam a bad name through their atrocities,” the president said.
“We should, under no circumstance, let the terrorists divide us by turning Christians against Muslims because these barbaric killers don’t represent Islam and millions of other law-abiding Muslims around the world. As a President, the collective security of all Nigerians is my major preoccupation and the death of an innocent Christian or Muslim distresses me.
“No true Muslim would be shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ while killing innocent people, an evil frequently condemned by the Holy Qur’an. These agents of darkness are enemies of our common humanity and they don’t spare any victim, whether they are Muslims or Christians, and therefore, we shouldn’t let them divide us and turn us against one another. The goal of these psychopaths is to cause confusion and spread distrust between Muslims and Christians, despite the fact that they aren’t representing the interest of Muslims or Islam.”
Last week, insurgents had mounted a checkpoint on the road to Monguno local government area, killing some victims and abducting others. Earlier in the month, four abducted aid workers of the Action Against Hunger, an international non-government organisation, were killed by the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP). The insurgents said the aid workers were killed following the breakdown of talks with the federal government.
