Forty five bishops from Northern Nigeria met in Abuja last week to discuss the Church of Nigeria’s response to the depredations of the Islamist terror group Boko Haram.

Forty five bishops from Northern Nigeria met in Abuja last week to discuss the Church of Nigeria’s response to the depredations of the Islamist terror group Boko Haram. The 26 Aug 2015 meeting at St Andrew’s Church, Kubwa, led by the Primate of All Nigeria, the Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh, was convened to take stock of the physical damage to churches in the North, and to report on numbers of dead and displaced persons from the conflict. After the meeting, Archbishop Okoh told reporters the “threats to security in the North-East zone are yet to die down and we urge President Muhammadu Buhari to do more in the area of improving security in the zone and as a way of ensuring that worshippers attend places of worship without fear.” He asked the government to detail troops to protect Christian churches. “Many Christians are yet to freely go to church in the affected areas, so there is need for the Federal Government to do more to restore the confidence reposed in the current national leadership,” he said, but added President Buhari had his full support. The aim of Boko Haram was to destroy Christians and shatter the Federal Republic of Nigeria. All Nigerians — Muslim and Christian — must stand fast in the face of the attacks from these “evil people who want to disorganise us because if they succeed, they will make us refugees.”