Muslim Militants Murder Pastor, Church Official in Nigeria

The Rev. David Usman,
45, and church secretary Hamman Andrew were the latest casualties in an
upsurge of Islamic militancy that has engulfed northern Nigeria this
year, resulting in the destruction of church buildings and the killing
and maiming of Christians.

 The Rev. Titus Dama Pona,
pastor with the Evangelical Church Winning All in Maiduguri, told
Compass that Pastor Usman was shot and killed by the members of the
Boko Haram near an area of Maiduguri called the Railway Quarters, where
the slain pastor’s church is located.

Pona said Christians in Maiduguri have become full of dread over the violence of Boko Haram, which seeks to impose sharia (Islamic law) on northern Nigeria.

“Christians
have become the targets of these Muslim militants—we no longer feel
free moving around the city, and most churches no longer carry out
worship service for fear of becoming targets of these unprovoked
attacks,” Pona said.

Officials at COCIN’s national
headquarters in Jos, Plateau state, confirmed the killing of Pas-tor
Usman. The Rev. Logan Gongchi of a COCIN congregation in Kerang, Jos,
told Compass that area Christians were shocked at the news.

Gongchi
said he attended Gindiri Theological College with Pastor Usman
beginning in August 2003, and that both of them were ordained into
pastoral ministry on Nov. 27, 2009.

“We knew him to be very
gentle, an introvert, who was always silent in the class and only spoke
while answering questions from our teachers,” Gongchi said. “He had a
simple lifestyle and was easygoing with other students. He was very
accommodating and ready at all times to withstand life’s pressures—this is in addition to being very jovial.”

Gongchi described
Usman as “a pastor to the core because of his humility. I remember he
once told me that he was not used to working with peasant farmers’
working tools, like the hoe. But with time he adapted to the reality of
working with these tools on the farm in the school.”

Pastor
Usman was excellent at counseling Christians and others while they were
at the COCIN theological college, Gongchi said, adding that the pastor
greatly encouraged him when he was suffering a long illness from 2005 to
2007.

“His encouraging words kept my faith alive, and the
Lord saw me overcoming my ill health,” he said. “So when I heard the
news about his murder, I cried.”

Motives
The
late pastor had once complained about the activities of Boko Haram,
saying that unless the Nigerian government faced up to the challenge of
its attacks, the extremist group would consume the lives of innocent
persons, according to Gongchi.

 “Pastor Usman once commented
on the activities of the Boko Haram, which he said has undermined the
church not only in Maiduguri, but in Borno state,” Gongchi said. “At the
time, he urged us to pray for them, as they did not know how the
problem will end.”

Gongchi advised the Nigerian government to
find a lasting solution to Boko Haram’s violence, which has also claimed
the lives of moderate Muslim leaders and police.

The Railway
Quarters area in Maiduguri housed the seat of Boko Haram until 2009,
when Nigerian security agencies and the military demolished its
headquarters and captured and killed the sect’s leader, Mohammed Yusuf,
and some of his followers.

The killing of Pastor Usman marked
the second attack on his church premises by the Muslim militants. The
first attack came on July 29, 2009, when Boko Haram militants burned the
church building and killed some members of his congregation.

On June 6, the militants bombed the St. Patrick’s Catholic
Church, along with other areas in Maiduguri, killing three people. In
all, 14 people were killed in three explosions at the church and police
stations, and authorities have arrested 14 people.

The Boko
Haram name is interpreted figuratively as “against Western education,”
but some say it can also refer to the forbidding of the Judeo-Christian
faith. They say the word “Boko” is a corruption in Hausa language for
the English word “Book,” referring to the Islamic scripture’s
description of Jews and Christians as “people of the Book,” while
“Haram” is a Hausa word derived from Arabic meaning, “forbidding.”

Boko
Haram leaders have openly declared that they want to establish an
Islamic theocratic state in Nigeria, and they reject democratic
institutions, which they associate with Christianity. Their bombings and
suspected involvement in April’s post-election violence in Nigeria were
aimed at stifling democracy, which they see as a system of government
built on the foundation of Christian scripture.

Christians as
well as Muslims suffered many casualties after supporters of Muslim
presidential candidate Muhammudu Buhari lost the April 16 federal
election to Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian. Primarily Muslim rioters
claimed vote fraud, although international observers praised the polls
as the fairest since 1999.

 Nigeria’s population of more than
158.2 million is almost evenly divided between Christians, who make up
51.3 percent of the population and live mainly in the south, and
Muslims, who account for 45 percent of the population and live mainly in
the north. The percentages may be less, however, as those practicing
indigenous religions may be as high as 10 percent of the total
population, according to Operation World.