AFRICA/NIGERIA - "I have never uttered those sentences on the CAN President", said Mgr. Kaigama

Friday, 26 September 2014

Abuja (Agenzia Fides) - "It was a political and media manipulation. I have never uttered those sentences ascribed by the media in Nigeria", says to Fides Agency His Exc. Mgr. Ignatius Ayau Kaigama, Archbishop of Jos and President of the Bishops' Conference of Nigeria, belying the criticisms attributed to him regarding the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor. CAN is the association that gathers the major Christian denominations in Nigeria, including the Catholic Church. The name of Pastor Oritsejafor emerged in connection with the arrest of two Nigerian nationals and one Israeli citizen on behalf of the South African authorities. The three were caught while trying to smuggle in South Africa $ 9.3 million in cash to buy weapons for the Nigerian security forces. The private jet with which they arrived in South Africa apparently belongs to Pastor Oritsejafor.
Some newspapers have highlighted that the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria has accused Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor of smearing the image of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), saying it is wrong for his plane to be associated with the scandalous “arms deal” in South Africa. the Archbishop of Jos said: "the interview I had with the BBC Hausa Service was on the Plenary Assembly of the Bishops' Conference that was held in Warri (see Fides 24/09/2014) - explains Mgr. Kaigama to Fides -. I explained what we discovered as Bishops on the suffering of the people fleeing the violence of Boko Haram. Only at the end of the interview I was asked what I thought of the appropriation of 9.3 million dollars discovered by South African authorities in a Nigerian plane. I replied that I had no idea about this episode, except to say that the authorities must do their duty to clarify the exact circumstances of what happened".
"The next day - says the Archbishop - I was surprised to read in the papers the statements on the CAN President attributed to me from the interview to the BBC. Sentences that I have never spoken, which are the fruit of the imagination of someone who wants to hit the CAN President. Or - continues Mgr. Kaigama - perhaps one wants to create tension among Christians and give rise to suspicions between Christians and Muslims, making one believe that among Christians there is someone who is buying up arms to fight the Muslims. Through these media operations one feeds more chaos and undermines the peaceful national coexistence".
"If you transcribe my interview to the BBC in the Housa language and translate it into English you will see that I never uttered the sentences on President Goodluck Jonathan and the CAN President. If I have a problem with him, I have his number and I can call him. I do not need to resort to the newspapers", concluded Mgr. Kaigama. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 26/09/2014)


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