Deeper Life pastor, 3 others killed in Maiduguri by suspected fundamentalists

As CAN, Uma Ukpai urge Christians to defend themselves

By Sam Eyoboka
LAGOS — Renewed sectarian killing resurfaced in Maiduguri, Borno State capital on Tuesday as a Deeper Life Christian Church pastor and three of his neighbours were killed by fundamentalists.
It was gathered that Michael Medugu, a district pastor in charge of Hausa church, was killed by a gang of four fundamentalists in his pharmaceutical shop while dispensing drugs to customers at about 7.05 p.m.,  leaving his wife and seven children to mourn him.
According to the reports, Megudu had just returned to his shop after the day’s Leadership meeting in his church, where his pastor, Ama Awokoya, incidentally called on Christians to increase their prayers for peace in the region, saying: “Must they bring dead bodies to the church before we intensify prayers?”
How prophetic that turned out to be, as few minutes later the pastor was confronted with the news of the death of the pastor in charge of the Hausa church and three of his neighbours including Obina, Mr. James and one Baba Joy at dusk same day by a gang of four who came in on foot and later escaped.

Attackers, enemies of President Jonathan—CAN
Responding to the latest brutal killing yesterday, the National President of Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor and the president of Uma Ukpai Evangelistic Organisation, Rev. Uma Ukpai argued that the incessant mindless killings might have been sponsored by enemies of the Goodluck Jonathan administration who are determined to make him look unpopular.
Oritsejafor, in a telephone interview, from Rome said the attacks “without any doubt are part of the grand design by enemies of the president who want to give the impression that the man is ineffective.”
He, therefore, called on Christians in that part of the country to rise up to defend themselves whenever they come under attack by these mindless fundamentalists, stressing: “It really does not make any sense for a peace-loving Christian to watch his family members being slaughtered without doing anything to defend them.
“People are calling me from that part of the country, daily by people who are disenchanted by the daily killings which had instilled fear in the minds of Christians in that region to the extent that some are now migrating from the region, because they believe that the government has not demonstrated enough commitment to defend the citizens,” Oritsejafor maintained.
Uma Ukpai urges Christians to defend themselves
Also speaking, Evangelist Uma Ukpai, who is also in Rome for this year’s Christian pilgrimage, said “there will be no end to the religious crisis in the North unless the Christians in the area take it upon themselves to defend their lives and property.
“Do you know that whenever the perpetrators of the crisis are arrested, they are released without any form of trial,” he said, adding: “This has continued over the years and not one person has been prosecuted successfully. I know that there is no one person in any jail in any part of Nigeria, who is serving any term for the part he/she played in any religious crisis.”