The Christian Rights Agenda, CRA, has condemned in strong terms the alleged conversion of minor Christian girls to Islam by Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State, describing it as a forceful and provocative conversion.
DAILY POST had reported the condemnation that ‘greeted’ the alleged conversion.
But CRA observed that since becoming Governor in 2015, Abdullahi Ganduje has made it a state policy to embark on mass conversion of indigenous Hausa Christians to Islam every Friday.
The CRA, in a statement issued by its Interim Director of Publicity, Mr Tom Chiamen, expressed dismay that indigenous Hausa Christians in Kano State have been subjugated under Ganduje’s administration and are denied their rights and privileges as citizens of the state.
The statement said a clear example was the denial of scholarships to Christian students studying in tertiary institutions in and outside Kano State.
The statement added that many Hausa Christians have also been denied employment opportunities and live in perpetual fear as second class citizens in a state of their ancestors.
The statement lamented, “Despite the clear improvement in infrastructure in Kano State, Christian dominated parts of Kano metropolis are still in their pre-1999 ruinous conditions.”
The Christian Rights Agenda alleged that the state government was expending state resources for jihad inspired conversion of Christian minors by force, tricks, intimidation, threats and all kinds of backward means, describing it as the most annoying insult indigenous Christians of Kano State are forced to live with under Ganduje.
CRA noted that the flimsy explanation by Governor Ganduje that the teenage girls in question were pagans and not Christians was not tenable, saying that pagans don’t bear Biblical names such as Rebecca.
The CRA demanded that the girls and many others be returned to their parents with immediate effect, or it would be left with no option than to take a legal action against the Kano State government in addition to reporting Ganduje to the international community, including the International Criminal Court, United Nations Commission on Human Rights, the governments of the United States of America, Britain and the European Unio
The CRA called on all men and women of goodwill, including President Muhammadu Buhari, to ask Governor Ganduje to desist from his mission and release the girls and many others forcefully abducted and converted to Islam.
The CRA observed that it is very disheartening that the Chairman of the Northern Governors Forum and Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong, and the Chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, Chief Audu Ogbeh, who both are Christians, have remained silent over this dangerous path being threaded by Ganduje.
The statement said the Governor’s action portends great danger to the fragile unity, peace and stability of Nigeria as a nation.
