Deeper Life Pastor, 3 Others killed in Borno

LAGOS, Jan 20, (THEWILL) - A District Pastor in the Deeper Life Bible Church (DLBC), Pastor Michael Medugu and three other persons were killed in renewed a sectarian violence, which erupted on Tuesday evening in Maiduguri, Borno State.

Medugu’s killing came almost one year after four persons including a District Pastor of Deeper Life Bible Church (DLBC), his four children and wife were killed in a sectarian violence which rocked Jos in January 2010.

THEWILL learned about the murder of the district pastor from a source in the Deeper Christian Life Ministry (DCLM) Headquarter in Lagos, but the source pleaded anonymity because DLBC General Superintendent, Pastor William F. Kumuyi had not given directive on whether the killing of Medugu should be announced to the public.

But it was gathered the Church in Maiduguri had been in the mourning mood since the news of the death of district was revealed to the church members. According to the source, the pastor had left the meeting to his pharmaceutical shop where he was dispensing drugs to customers at about 7.05 p.m. on Tuesday before his assailants struck.

The source said Pastor Medugu “left behind his wife and seven children to mourn him while Senior Pastor in the District, Pastor Ama Awokoya wept when he was told that Medugu had been murdered, shortly after he asked Deeper Life faithful to pray against attack on Christians in the Muslims dominated region.”

Other persons, who were killed along with the late pastor, were simply identified as Obina, James and one Baba Joy. They were Medugu’s neighbours. The attackers were said to have escaped after carrying out the nefarious act.

In his reaction to the attacks on Christians in the north, Christian Association of N Nigeria (CAN) President, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor has expressed his profound reservation on the increasing attacks on Christians in the Northern parts of country, thus urging all Christians in the volatile region to brace up and defend themselves and family when attacked by the Muslim extremists adding that the killings were no longer tolerable.

Oritsejafor said it really “does not make any sense for a peace-loving Christian to watch his family members being slaughtered without doing anything to defend them. People are calling me from that part of the country daily.

“These people are disenchanted by the daily killings which had instilled fear in the minds of Christians in the Northern region to the extent that some are now migrating from the region, because they believe that the government has not demonstrated enough commitment to defend the citizens,” Oritsejafor explained.

He added that it “is sad that some people have persistently laid siege in the region in a deliberate attempt to exterminate every Christian in the area. For how long shall we continue like this? It is no longer acceptable in this civilized age, for human beings to kill fellow citizens in the name of fighting for God.”

Oritsejafor said that the incessant killings might be a ploy by the enemies of President Goodluck Jonathan to discredit his administration and give the impression that the President is not effective just as major Christian leaders, who reacted to the killing, opined that there “will be no end to the religious crisis in the North unless christians in the area take it upon themselves to defend their lives and property.”