The Catholic Archbishop of Ibadan, Most Reverend Gabriel Ojeleke Abegunrin, has rejected the idea being mooted by a section of Nigerians that the citizenry be allowed to carry arms as a way of fighting insecurity in the country.
Archbishop Abegunrin admitted that the security situation in Nigerian had reached an alarming stage and that the government should desist from playing deaf and act decisively on the situation, but he said arming the citizenry was not the solution to the problem.
Bishop Abegunrin made this known while speaking at a press conference to celebrate his 75th birthday, held at St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church, Mokola, Ibadan, on Wednesday.
He lamented that the government had turned deaf ears to pieces of advice from various stakeholders in the country, including the Catholic Church through the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), but insisted that the church will not relent in calling on the government to do the right thing.
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Speaking on whether it was desirable to allow Nigerians to carry arms to defend themselves, Archbishop Abegunrin said: “Self-defence is a natural instinct. If you come forward to slap me and I knock off your hand, that is self-defence. If they want to kill you and you can dodge or prevent it, that’s self defence. I am not encouraging you to go and carry guns and all that. You will be arrested.
“But then, security is so bad in Nigeria that people have to look for how to protect themselves. They either hide or they live in places where people cannot get to. But our government is deaf. We have made noise so much about security but not much is happening. They will tell us they have eliminated so and so number of bandits here and there, the truth is known to them.
“There is a lot of cheating and robbery in the country; don’t wait for the Church alone to talk about it. They say ‘na church, them dey preach… talking is their business’. So we must all join voices to condemn what is wrong. We can only talk. The Church will never raise as much as a knife against anybody. The Church is not for violence, the Church is for peace.”
Earlier in a message, Reverend Father Richard Omolade said “Archbishop Abegunrin has always expressed his optimism and confidence in the ability of the youths to liberate the country from the hands of bad leaders, even as he encourages all young and old to speak out and never remain docile.”
Father Omolade, while congratulating Abegunrin on behalf of the clergy the religious and laity of the Catholic Archdiocese of Ibadan, noted that his “tenure as the Archbishop of Ibadan has witnessed tremendous growth at Parish, Deanery, Archdiocesan and Provincial levels.”
