JOS, Nigeria, November 19, 2020
(Morning Star News ) – Their pleas for
government help falling on deaf ears,
Christian leaders issued calls for
prayer this month as Islamic extremist
groups continued terrorizing northeast
Nigeria.
In the wake of attacks and kidnappings
by Islamic extremist group Boko
Haram and its offshoot Islamic State
West Africa Province (ISWAP), leaders
of the Evangelical Church Winning All
(ECWA) called for the release of four
members long held captive by Islamic
extremists in the country’s northeast.
The Rev. Stephen Baba Panya,
president of the ECWA, said church
leaders are troubled at the lack of
effort by the Nigerian government to
free church members years after
Islamic extremist groups took them
captive. He called for prayer for high
school student Leah Sharibu, two aid
workers, university student Lillian
Gyang and the 112 girls who remain
captive of the 276 kidnapped from a
high school in Chibok, Borno state in
2014.
“Please join faith with me, and let us
pray standing on God’s promises in
Matthew 18:18-19 that Boko Haram/
ISWAP or any other Islamic terror
group shall not determine the fate of
God’s beloved daughters Leah Sharibu,
Alice Loksha Ngaddah, Grace Lucas,
and Lillian Gyang who are ECWA
members, and also the remaining
Chibok girls,” Pastor Panya said in a
statement sent to Morning Star News.
Leah Sharibu, 15 years old when she
was kidnapped by Boko Haram on Feb.
19, 2018 from the Government Girls’
Science and Technical College, in
Dapchi, Yobe state, was one of 110
girls taken captive; the 109 Muslim
girls were released while Leah
remained captive when she refused to
renounce her Christian faith.
Ngaddah, mother of two children and
an aid worker with UNICEF, was
abducted on March 1, 2018 in Rann,
Borno state, when ISWAP militants
attacked an Internally Displaced
Persons camp where she was working.
Her aged mother reportedly died of
trauma soon after learning about the
kidnapping.
Taku, a health worker with Action
Against Hunger, was kidnapped by
ISWAP militants on July 18, 2019,
along the Damasak-Maiduguri highway
in Borno state. She also was
ministering to displaced people.
Lillian Daniel Gyang, a student at the
University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) in
Borno state, was kidnapped on Jan. 9
by ISWAP while returning to school
from the Christmas and New Year’s
break from her native Plateau state.
ISWAP in 2016 broke off from Boko
Haram, which attacked two
predominantly Christian communities in
Borno state earlier this month. The
Boko Haram insurgents, who seek to
impose sharia (Islamic law) throughout
Nigeria, attacked Pulka and Gwoza
towns soon after Christians had
finished Sunday evening services on
Nov. 8, residents said.
“The attacks on Pulka and Gwoza
towns started at about 9 p.m. and
lasted till around 11p.m.,” area resident
Vanessa Muda told Morning Star News
by text message. “The Boko Haram
terrorists invaded our towns shooting
indiscriminately on our people.”
Another area resident, Polycarp John,
said the Boko Haram militants were
heavily armed.
“They were repelled when personnel of
the Nigerian army who were stationed
here fought them and forced them to
retreat from Gwoza and Pulka towns,”
he told Morning Star News by text
message. “Our towns have been under
constant attacks from Boko Haram
since 2014, and at a time, Gwoza town
was made the headquarters of the
Boko Haram caliphate until the Nigeria
army retook the town from them in
2018.”
The attacks came on the heels of an
appeal by leaders of the Church of the
Brethren in Nigeria (EYN), for prayer
for Christians in southern Borno state
facing terror from both Boko Haram
and ISWAP militants.
“It is harvest time, which is challenging
in normal years, but in these past years
includes the threat of Boko Haram
destroying the crop or attacking people
as they harvest,” the leaders wrote in a
Nov. 6 email. “Pray for many
vulnerable villages in southern Borno
state and other areas far from military
bases.”
SIX NIGERIANS CONVICTED
Lela Gilbert, senior fellow for
international religious freedom for the
Family Research Council, stated in a
recent report that in spite of frequent
appeals from Nigerian church leaders
across the denominational spectrum
and international human rights
advocates, violence is escalating.
“Many informed observers describe
Nigeria’s political leadership as both
incompetent and corrupt,” Gilbert noted.
“But that’s only part of the problem.
Not only are they almost entirely
Muslim in their religious affiliation
(while the country’s population is
roughly half Christian), as previously
noted, several governmental leaders –
beginning with President Muhammadu
Buhari – belong to the Fulani tribe, as
do numerous military and police
officials. This is seen as one of the
major roadblocks to reform, particularly
with regard to the Fulani jihadi
massacres.”
In the United Arab Emirates, authorities
were able to convict six Nigerians
resident in the UAE for financing Boko
Haram activities in Nigeria, according
to press reports.
Surajo Abubakar Muhammad and
Saleh Yusuf Adamu were sentenced to
life imprisonment, while Ibrahim Ali
Alhassan, Abdurahman Ado Musa,
Bashir Ali Yusuf and Muhammad
Ibrahim Isa each received 10-year
prison sentences, according to Nigerian
newspaper the Daily Trust .
An Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal
convicted the six Islamists of providing
Boko Haram with $782,000.
On Jan. 30 Christian Solidarity
International (CSI) issued a genocide
warning for Nigeria, calling on the
Permanent Member of the United
Nations Security Council to take action.
CSI issued the call in response to “a
rising tide of violence directed against
Nigerian Christians and others
classified as ‘infidels’ by Islamist
militants in the country’s north and
middle belt regions.’”
Nigeria ranked 12 on Open Doors’
2020 World Watch List of countries
where Christians suffer the most
persecution but second in the number
of Christians killed for their faith,
behind Pakistan.
If you would like to help persecuted
Christians, visit http://
morningstarnews.org/resources/aid-
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