Bishop Mamza condemns killing of security agents, calls for prosecution of culprits
The Bishop of Yola Catholic Diocese, Most Reverend Bishop Stephen Dami Mamza has condemned in strong terms the killing of security personnel across the country by non-state actors.
Recently, no fewer than 16 soldiers and half dozen policemen were slaughtered in cold blood during various peace keeping operations in the country.
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The Bishop who made the call on the sidelines of Chrism mass on Tuesday at St Theresa Catholic Church in Yola, noted that, such action has dire portents on security of lives and properties.
While shedding light on the Chrism mass, Mamza said the mass is officially celebrated on Holy Thursdays in the morning adding that the event was shifted to Tuesday solely for pastoral reasons.
“It is a mass that we commemorate the institution of the holy priesthood and so this day all the priests in the Catholic Church renew their vows and commitment before their Bishop. It is a day in which they reminisce the day they were ordained as priests and so it is a very important day for them.
“That is why priests from all the parishes of the diocese are here in order to participate in this mass and within the mass, we have three major oils that we bless; we bless the oil of the sick; the oil of catechumens and we consecrate the oil of chrism.
“The three oils are very important. The oil of catechumens is used in order to prepare candidates for baptism, the oil of the sick is to anoint the sick for healing and the oil of chrism is meant for baptism for the ordination of priests for the dedication of the church and the dedication of alter,” he said.
He noted that the event also features what is called cathederaticum which is support for the Bishop and the diocese to carry out their activities in the course of the year.
“We have the cathederaticum every year on this day but because of the fact that we want to make the chrism mass to be solely spiritual activity, we decided to fix a different day for the cathederaticum which is 4th of May. On that day, we will raise funds hopefully to support the diocese and to do other things in the diocese.
“By the grace of God, in 2027 all the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria will be here to have their conference. So we have started preparing and our Cathederaticum this year is going to focus on that in order to raise funds to complete the pastoral center for the accommodation of the bishops when they come for the conference,” he said.
While calling on the federal government to fish out all those responsible for the extra judicial killings of security personnel, the Bishop called for caution so that innocent persons should not suffer collateral damage.
“The security agents are there to protect us and to protect lives and properties. There should be no reason why a civilian should take arms against military and kill him or fight him or do anything bad to him because they are meant to protect us.
“What happened in Delta State and in some other places has happened but the security personnel should try to do all they can to fish all responsible but they should also be careful not to allow innocent people to suffer the consequences of the criminal act of some outlaws,” he said.