Insecurity: CAN declares three-day national mourning

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has declared a three-day national mourning period, from June 12 to June 14, to honor victims of escalating violent attacks, mass abductions, and banditry across the country. The apex Christian body also designated June 14 as "Black Sunday," urging all churches to observe it as a mark of solidarity with families affected by the ongoing security crisis.

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Communities are under attack; citizens are kidnapped from their homes and places of work, travelers are abducted on highways, and farmers are driven from their lands.

Archbishop Daniel Okoh, President of CAN, announced the mourning period in Abuja following a National Church Denominational Leaders Summit. The summit, themed "The State of the Nation and the Way Forward," brought together church leaders to assess the nation's challenges. Okoh expressed deep concern over the rising wave of violence, citing recent incidents in Oyo, Ogun, Borno, Kwara, and Kogi states, where communities have been attacked, citizens kidnapped, and farmers driven from their lands.

Okoh urged the Federal Government to immediately declare a state of emergency on national security to halt the bloodshed. He criticized the government's "recurring resort to conciliatory and pacifist rhetoric" in response to severe security threats, advocating instead for a proactive, results-oriented approach. He reminded officials that protecting lives and property is a government's primary responsibility.

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Innocent men, women, and children are killed, maimed, displaced, and, in some cases, brutally beheaded by criminal and terrorist elements.

Consequently, CAN demanded a comprehensive review of the nation's security architecture, emphasizing the need for improved intelligence gathering, stronger inter-agency cooperation, and greater operational accountability. The association also supports decentralizing security operations and called for accelerating constitutional processes to establish state police. Furthermore, CAN demanded the immediate release of all abducted individuals and called for a compensation and rehabilitation program for victims of terrorism.

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The primary responsibility of any administration remains the protection of lives and property.