By Luminous Jannamike, Abuja

The Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, on Saturday protested against Nigeria’s removal from the list of religious freedom violators with a call on the United States to make public the data used to reach the decision. 

According to the apex Christian body, where such an impactful decision contradicts reality on the ground, more information should be made public clear the doubts and provide closure for victims.

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CAN President, Rev. Samson Ayokunle, who said this in a statement, revealed that the religious body was at a loss on how the US government came to the of delisting Nigeria from the list of ‘Countries of Particular Concern’ on the issue of freedom of religion.

“The US government did not contact us when they were listing Nigeria among the countries of ‘Particular Concern’ on religious freedom, neither did they seek our opinion before removing Nigeria from the list. If they had done, we would have been able to compare the statistics, then and now on the issue of freedom of religion in Nigeria,” he emphasised.

While imploring the Federal Government government see to it that religiously-biased policies are discontinued, CAN listed the attack on churches, killing worshippers by bandits and terrorists, kidnapping of Christian clerics and students for ransom, denial of Christians the Certificate of Occupancy to build churches in parts of the North, removal of Christian Religious Studies in the public schools owned by some States, the alleged refusal of the Ministry of Interior to issue new marriage certificate booklets to licensed churches that had exhausted their supply, proposed rehabilitation of surrendered Boko Haram/ISWAP terrorists, and the government’s funding of Nigeria’s membership of the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) as acts of religious repression in the country that had not changed.

Ayokunle also stated, “All right thinking people would continue to ask the US government to let the world know what has changed on the issue of religious freedom and persecution the Christians are facing between the time they placed the country in the list of ‘Countries of Particular Concern’ and now. CAN in particular would like to know. This is  because all those factors that put Nigeria on the CPC list for the first time in 2020 are still there.

“Let me conclude by saying that we are trying to bring some of the issues of religious persecution or discrimination up at our Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) meeting so as to douse religious tension and foster harmonious relationship between religious adherents in Nigeria. Please be praying for us for success along this line.”