ICC Note: Nigerian Bishops called for the President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, to step down after several recent attacks on Churches in Benue State. These attacks were believed to be conducted by Fulani militants, which has been a growing problem over the past year.

05/01/2018 Nigeria (World Watch Monitor) – The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria has urged the country’s President to step down in the wake of a massacre at a church last week.

Muhammadu Buhari is due to meet with US President Donald Trump in Washington today (30 April) and is expected to discuss strategies for fighting terrorism.

On Tuesday (24 April), around 30 armed men, believed to be Fulani herdsmen, stormed a Catholic church in Ukpor-Mbalom community, in the central Benue state, killing 19 people, including priests Joseph Gor and Felix Tyolaha.

The massacre prompted the Nigeria’s House of Representatives to summon Buhari over the killings (on 25 April). The assembly also passed a vote of no confidence in the country’s service chiefs for the armed forces and all the security advisers to the president.

The lawmakers in the lower legislative suspended sitting for three days in solidarity with Nigerians over the killings.

The Catholic bishops denounced what they called a “carefully planned” and “wicked” act, in a statement issued on 26 April.

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