What if your church was bombed? It happened in Nigeria recently. The following is courtesy of Compass Direct. Full story here.
Church leader makes urgent call for government to restore order.ABUJA, Nigeria, July 19 (CDN) — Members of a church in Suleja, Niger state, on the northern outskirts of this Nigerian capital city, culminated a week of fasting and prayer on Saturday (July 17) with a memorial service for three Christians killed in a bombing by an Islamist sect.
Muslim militants from the Boko Haram threw a bomb into the building of the All Christian Fellowship Mission church on July 10 as members were leaving a Sunday worship service, authorities said.
Church member Christopher Ogbu told Compass he lost his wife, Ifeanyiwa Justina Ogbu, in the explosion.
“I have now been transformed into a widower, as my wife has been killed here,” Ogbu said.
At the funeral service for the three Christians that were killed, the Rev. William Okoye, general overseer of the church, lamented the lack of security in Nigeria. He urged the government to halt the violence that has ravaged the country this year before it is plunged into religious war.
He told Compass that he rushed to the church site when news of the explosion reached him.
“I got here to discover that indeed an explosion had occurred in my church here in Suleja,” he said. “Two died here, while the third died in the hospital in Abuja.”
Shortly after the church was bombed, he said, the church declared a week of fasting and prayer. Security authorities believe members of Boko Haram, which has declared a jihad on the government in a bid to impose a strict version of sharia (Islamic law) on the country, threw a bomb onto church premises the afternoon of July 10.
“We received a report about the explosion in this church, and we rushed here to discover that it is true the church has been bombed,” Sanusi Lemu, assistant commissioner of police, told Compass. “We then brought in our men from the bomb disposal unit, who recovered the injured and those killed.”