Northern Christian Association, Foundation Distribute Food To Owo Massacre Survivors, Others

Northern Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), in partnership with the UK-based Barnabas Aid Foundation, has distributed essential food items to 1,000 vulnerable households in Ondo State.

The beneficiaries are survivors of the June 5, 2022, Saint Francis Catholic Church attack in Owo, widows, persons living with disabilities, and internally displaced families at Gbalegi in Idanre Local Government Area.

The items distributed ranged from rice, beans, maize, and garri to groundnut oil, palm oil, sugar, seasoning cubes, and salt, aimed at easing the burdens of the festive season.
Speaking at the distribution event at Saint Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Northern CAN Chairman Rev. Joseph Hayab described the initiative as both a spiritual and humanitarian gesture.

Hayab stated that churches in the North and South must unite against violence, noting that “the enemy of the church in Owo is the same enemy of the church in Kaduna.”

He added, “The enemy of the church in Gombe is the same enemy of the church in Akure. So we need to work together, despite our tribal differences, but in Christ Jesus, we are one. Despite our denominational differences, in Christ Jesus, we are one.”

According to Hayab, “We are here to do one simple thing. Barnabas Aid is a UK organisation. They reached out to us as Christian leaders in northern Nigeria to help people who are victims of violence or religious crisis, and we agreed to go to five states—Borno, Kaduna, Plateau, and Benue. Still, they required that we also go to one state outside the North. I remember the story of this town.”
His words: “I am standing right in front of you in a church that has suffered pains, in a town that people have mourned and grieved.

It is not easy, but it reminds me that this is what we also used to suffer from in the North and continue to suffer from. We thought it was just in the North, but when it happens here, we understand it has become a national calamity.”

Hayab stated, “But on behalf of the entire Christians in Northern Nigeria, I bring you greetings of love, greetings of hope, and greetings of solidarity to show you that we are brothers. The Bible says we are brethren, and brethren have to share things in common. The pains you went through are the pain we have been going through, and we pray that no one again should go through that pain.”

He said, “I can see mothers here, I can see some of our children here, and I just wonder how evil some people can be to walk into a sanctuary, to walk into a church on a Sunday when people have come to do only one thing, to bless God and seek the face of God and cause them pain.”