By Ayo Kehinde
President Muhammadu Buhari has appealed to Nigerians not to let terrorists divide the country along religious lines, following execution of some Christians and Muslims by the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
His appeal is coming a week after the government raised the alarm of a new alliance between ISWAP and Boko Haram that is armed with nuclear capability and the release of a video on Boxing Day by the Islamic State group in which it claimed to show the killing of 11 Christians in Nigeria.
IS reportedly said the killing was part of its recently declared campaign to “avenge” the death of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi during a US raid in Syria in October.
The victims, who were all male, were reportedly “captured in the past weeks” in Nigeria’s north-eastern Borno State.
In the 56-second video released on 26 December one captive in the middle is shot dead while the other 10 are pushed to the ground and beheaded.
“We killed them as revenge for the killing of our leaders,including Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Abul-Hasan al-Muhajir,” said a member of the group’s media unit, according to Ahmad Salkida, a journalist who was first sent the video.
According to President Buhari in a statement by Malam Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, on Friday, “We should, under no circumstance, let the terrorists divide us by turning Christians against Muslims because these barbaric killers don’t represent Islam and millions of other law-abiding Muslims around the world.
“As a President, the collective security of all Nigerians is my major preoccupation and the death of an innocent Christian or Muslim distresses me.’’
The President said the terrorists have no clearly defined agenda except the pursuit of evil through indiscriminate murder of innocent people, contrary to the teachings of Islam, which prohibits massacre.
“No true Muslim would be shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ while killing innocent people, an evil frequently condemned by the Holy Qur’an.’’
“These agents of darkness are enemies of our common humanity and they don’t spare any victim, whether they are Muslims or Christians, and therefore, we shouldn’t let them divide us and turn us against one another.
“The goal of these psychopaths is to cause confusion and spread distrust between Muslims and Christians, despite the fact that they aren’t representing the interest of Muslims or Islam.
“While I condemn this evil, I wish to reassure Nigerians that this administration will not lower its guards in the war against terrorism, and we will continue to intensify our efforts towards strengthening international cooperation and collaboration to break the backbone of these evil doers,’’ the President added.
He said President Buhari called on all Nigerians to be united against terrorists and avoid unhelpful conspiracy theories that serve the interest of Boko Haram terrorists and ISWAP.
