The Catholic Bishop of Lafia Diocese, Most Rev. David Ajang, has urged community leaders to fish out perpetrators of crime in their domains and hand them over to security agents for prosecution.
The Bishop stated this on Friday in Lafia in an interview with newsmen immediately after the Stations of the Cross held at Saint. William’s Cathedral in commemeration of 2022 Good Friday.
Ajang also urged security agents to discharge their duties without fear or favour for peace, justice and development of the country.
According to him, communities must find a way of assisting the security agencies in fishing out perpetrators of criminal activities who carry out crimes and go back to their communities without any form of punishment.
He noted that one of the reasons Nigeria is facing a lot of challenges is because of bad leadership and followership, saying both the leaders and their followers must dischange their attitudes for growth and development of the country.
“People keep dying in this country but it seems as if what interests most politicians is who takes over in 2023 and that’s quite unfortunate.
He expressed the hope that “With rising insecurity in the country, people should focus on restoring hope to the people for them to, at least, feel secured.
“The leaders have a part to play and the body language must change. It seems as if people can get away with crime now and nothing encourages crime like what is happening now.
“With everything that has been happening, nobody has been prosecuted to deter others who might want to commit crimes. Perpetrators, even in large numbers, commit their crimes disappear into thin air and nobody is punished.
“That is a recipe of confusion and that is why things keep getting worse everyday,” he said.
The Bishop said that Good Friday is a day, celebrated by Christians in remembrance of the Crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ on the Cross for the salvation of mankind.
The bishop said that Jesus came into the world, suffered and died on the cross for the salvation of mankind, a lesson Christians must learn from and strive to be like Him.
He said incarnation of God who became man was because he saw that the world was helpless and inorder to restore the hope of man, Jesus came to save us.
“This is the time we must turn to God, we all must critically examine ourselves and see what we need to do in order to change the situation of our country,” he said.
In a separate Interview, the Deputy Governor of Nasarawa State, Dr Emmanuel Akabe, said Good Friday calls for sober reflection and urged Christians to turn to Jesus who died for the salvation of mankind.
“This is a period that we should reflect as citizens of this State and see how we can build our State to become the envy of all.
“We should resolve our grievance, love and forgive one another so that God will answer our prayers,” Akabe said.