Please Do Not Relocate The Methodist Church, El-Rufai Pleads

Nasir el-Rufai, The  Governor of Kaduna State, has pleaded with the Prelate of the Methodist Church, Dr. Samuel Uche, not to move the branch of the church whivh was partly destroyed in Kafanchan during the December 19, 2016 riot.


This statement was made during the visit of the prelate to the government house, Kaduna on Thurday the 19th of January, 2017.

In the statement which was released to the press stated that the governor made this request in response to the prelate request for a plot of land to relocate the church which has suffered degrees of damage each time is was crisis in the state.

El-Rufai said, “I visited your church in Kafanchan after the violence. We are willing to give you another plot of land in Kafanchan, but please consider using it to build an additional church. We request that you do not abandon or relocate the church from your present site. Let us not succumb to the agents of blackmail and division."

“Your neighbours in Kafanchan must accept the right of that church to remain there. The current church should be rebuilt and maintained as a symbol of the right to worship freely,” the governor said.

El-Rufai said his government was committed to securing the area and promoting a return to normalcy.

He revealed that the security around the area has been reinforced and increased which is includes 10 mobile police squadrons  now deployed in the affected local governments, along with two battalions of soldiers to further arrest the killings.

The governor went ahead to advise that the character of allowing people to hide under religion and cause mayham must be discourage by the leadership of the church

“When individuals have problems or dispute, they should not be allowed to mobilise emotions by escalating their differences into an ethnic or religious conflict,” he said.