Date Published: 05/12/09
CENTRE FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF CHILDREN’S AND WOMEN’S RIGHTS [CACWR]
196, TENANT ROAD, ABA, ABIA STATE, NIGERIA
E-mail: cacwr_nig@yahoo.com
11th May, 2009 PRESS RELEASE
ABIANS NEED DEVELOPMENT, NOT MOSQUES BUILDING…
The attention of the Centre for the Advancement and Children’s and Women’s Rights [CACWR] has been drawn to a front page story entitled “Group Condemns Orji’s Plan to Establish Mosques” and published by the Daily Independent issue of Monday, May 4, 2009.
The story, which was credited to the Human Rights, Justice and Peace Foundation [HRJPF] stated among other things that Governor T.A. Orji of Abia State was planning to build mosques in the 17 Local Government AreaS [ L.G.As] of the state.
Although the Chief Press Secretary to Governor Orji, Mr. Sam Hart, had in a rejoinder to the publication dismissed it as a hallucination, stating that it was the handiwork of the opposition in the state; the CACWR wishes to state categorically that there are elements of truth in the allegation.
Recall that in the first quarter of this year, the Abia State Government announced on the Broadcasting Corporation of Abia [BCA] that it was going to renovate at least one church in each of the 17 L.G.As of the state. And when the Islamic Community approached him over the announcement, he also promised to build at least one mosque in each of the 17 L.G.As of the state.
It is unthinkable that in the face of mass unemployment, irregular payment of public servants’ salaries, infrastructural decay and economic hardship confronting Abia State, Governor Orji would be planning to renovate churches and or build mosques with public funds. This portrays him as a visionless ruler with misplaced priorities.
While thanking the HRJPF led by Comrade Chidi Nwosu, the Omeudo 1 [Peace Maker] and uncompromising defender of truth and justice, the CACWR wishes to make it crystal clear to Governor Orji that Abians do not need renovation of churches and or building of mosques with public funds but development.
But if Governor Orji feels renovation of churches and or building of mosques is the only thing that can atone for his crime against humanity, the CACWR demands that he goes the whole hog to build worship centres for all religious groups in the state, including Guru Maharaji Sect, Ogboni Confraternity, Eckanker, Godian Religion, Brotherhood of the Cross and Star, Amadioha shrine, Sango shrine, Ogun shrine and other African traditional religious sect.
Mrs Fidelia Ibekwe
President
