Rev. Father Cornelius Omonokhua has given reasons why the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC), co-chaired by the Sultan of Sokoto and the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), was shut down from 2013 to 2018
In an interview with AIT, Omonokhua said one of the reasons was that Christians at the time thought that Muslims could stop Boko Haram insurgency. He said during a NIREC meeting, the then CAN President, Ayo Oritsejafor, told the Sultan to his face that he (the Sultan) could stop the Boko Haram insurgency. He said the Sultan replied that Muslims were also being killed by Boko Haram
Omonokhua said another reason was a disagreement between Muslims and Christians over the 2014 national conference. He said the NIREC coordinator described the conference as being against Muslims. He added that the last reason was that the Catholic Church accused CAN of being partisan and withdrew from CAN.
In Omonokhua’s words: “There was insurgency right. The Christians, Ayo Oritsejafor was the CAN president then, were thinking that the Muslims could stop Boko Haram. In the meeting we had in Uyo, he even put it to the Sultan to his face that ‘You can stop them’ and the Sultan said they are are also killing Muslims too”
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