THE newly-elected President of the Council of Unification of Cherubim and Seraphim Churches, Primate Ade Ademisokun Turton, has identified the cause of the Boko Haram insurgency in the northern part of Nigeria as the "the politics of presidential contest".
The cleric, who made this known in Akure, Ondo State capital Friday, said "If president Goodluck Jonathan declares today that he is not interested in a second term of office, these terrorists would be demobilised immediately."
He justified his assertion by the rejection of the Federal Government amnesty proposal by the dreaded sect, which had slaughtered over 2000 Nigerians.
Turton, who is the founder of the popular Success Gate C&S Ministry in Akure, alleged that the northern political elite are the ones behind the Boko Haram insurgency with the sole aim of recapturing the presidency.
According to Turton, who addressed a press conference with other leaders of the C&S movement to herald the inauguration of the council with the mandate of unifying all the sects of the movement, it has become an historical fact in Nigeria to use violence to attain the presidency.
He said: "It was the intrigue and the fight that greeted the annulment of the June 12, 1983, election that led to the emergence of Obasanjo, a Yoruba, as president in 1999 and the armed militancy in the creeks of Niger Delta that produced Jonathan, an Ijaw as the current president.
"So naturally, the north too is foisting its own violence on the country even though they hide under the cloak of religion by killing Christians. The north is using violence to reclaim power."
On whether it is desirable to offer amnesty to the insurgents as proposed by the Federal Government to achieve peace, the cleric said, "it is obvious that you don't give amnesty to faceless people.
"The president wants a second term so he will give them amnesty and even send them abroad for training with tax payers' money for those that they have killed to die in vain. But at the end of the day, Nigeria will suffer greatly."
Asked if what he was saying was a prediction of things to come, Turton said: "It is not a prediction but certainty. Predictions can change, but certainties will not. This country will suffer for spilling the blood of the innocent on the altar of politics."
He said Nigerian leaders have committed so many sins against the citizens that the country ought to have been broken up by now if not for the roles of religion in the society.
According to him, "apart from praying for this country, religion is the one holding Nigerians back from turning violent. We assuage their feelings and give them hope that things would be better. And for those who are totally." hopeless, we tell them to wait for the hereafter.
He added: "Can anybody contain the anger of a graduate of 10 years who is still being fed by his/her parents? But we tell him better days are coming and that keeps him going. We visit lepers, old people and the infirm. We take care of abandoned children and do a lot of things government should do. Take religion out of this country and all hell will break loose."
