Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Kaduna State chapter, Rev. Joseph Hayab, has called on Nigerians on Wednesday, June 6, 2023, to ignore the Islamization claims made by the state’s former governor, Nasir El-Rufai.
The CAN chairman further claimed that El-Rufai’s recent pronouncements regarding a Muslim/Muslim ticket, as well as President Bola Tinubu’s victory that silenced his opponents and CAN, were methods geared at advancing his supposed presidential ambitions and fostering divisiveness among Christians and Muslims in the country.
El-Rufai claimed that the Muslim-Muslim ticket would be run in Kaduna for at least the next 20 years. According to the former governor, Muslim domination is being replicated at the national level.
Rev. Hayab said, “Some of us that have known El-Rufai for saying this kind of thing, for plotting these kinds of issues and for masterminding these kinds of issues, many people thought we were just fighting or stopping him for something else. God has helped us for El-Rufai to come out publicly and make Nigerians know who exactly is El-Rufai.”
Hayab went on to say that El-Rufai is living in a fantasy in which he may play religious games and possibly become Nigeria’s next president.
Hayab said, “You know, since he (El-Rufai) is up to something, he is playing a game and what he would do is to confuse people and set up Christians against Muslims; set up Christians against the present government, and then he would stand to benefit from it tomorrow. Unfortunately, I will say to him, he has failed from the onset.
“With this, he has actually proved to Nigerians that he is not in the first place fit to be a leader and I think that is one of the problems in Nigeria. We give people power without testing their emotional stability whether they are mentally alright to lead”.
According to Hayab, if the Muslim/Muslim ticket had genuinely succeeded in Kaduna state, there would have been no massacres, division, or difficulties in Kaduna, despite the fact that no success was documented under his (El-rufai’s) administration.
Hayab said, “El-Rufai is fond of making these kinds of allegations and later turns to water it down. In 2015, he said that the Christians in Southern Kaduna did not vote for him, personally, l went to him and reminded him of the votes he got in Sanga, Jema’a, Kachia and other local governments where he got almost the same votes with the PDP and that ended the lies and argument and he apologised to me.
“In 2019, he needed 2/3 in the 23 local government areas and he could not have gotten it without the votes from the Christian dominated local government areas.
“El-Rufai is just talking about himself. El-Rufai has no respect for even the Islamic clerics, he is doing everything for himself to get what he wants and not about the religion of the people”.
![Rev. Fr. Anthony Odiong, a US-based Nigerian Louisiana Catholic priest, was arrested in Florida on Tuesday for possessing child pornography, according to law authorities. The suspect is reportedly accused of many other cases of sexual assault. The Waco, Texas, Police Department announced in a Facebook post on Tuesday that officers detained Father Anthony Odiong in Ave Maria, Florida, with assistance from the United States Marshals Service. Waco police announced in March that they had received "credible information" about a sexual assault allegedly committed by Odiong in Texas in 2012. “During the subsequent investigation, a case of possession of child pornography was uncovered,” the police said. The priest was apprehended in Florida by the Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force. The Waco Police Department said that he will be extradited to Texas. Odiong had previously served in the Archdiocese of New Orleans before being removed as priest in December of last year due to controversy over homilies in which he claimed, among other things, that the Catholic Church was being taken over by "the gays." At the time, the priest was also accused of abusive behaviour; a Louisiana lady claimed in U.S. bankruptcy court that Odiong had committed both financial and sexual abuse against her. Prior to joining the New Orleans Archdiocese, Odiong served in at least two Texas parishes. On Tuesday, Waco police stated that during their sexual assault investigation, "the presence of other survivors was revealed." “Multiple women have come forward to tell similar experiences as the sexual assault survivor who reported the initial allegation,” the police department said. “Survivors’ experiences ranged from sexual assault and indecent assault, more commonly recognised as groping, and financial abuse, with some survivors experiencing every element of Anthony Odiong’s manipulation.” The police said they “believe there may be more survivors, and we wish to speak with anyone who [has] had similar encounters” with the priest. The Archdiocese of New Orleans issued a brief news release on Tuesday noting Odiong's arrest in Florida. The archdiocese “encourages anyone with any information to contact law enforcement,” the release said.](https://chronicle.ng/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/ezgif-6-4730550ede-450x300.jpg "Odiong: US-based Nigerian Catholic priest convicted over sexual assault")
