The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) on Thursday urged President Muhammadu Buhari to honourably resign over his inability to curtail the atrocious activities of killer herdsmen across the country.

The call follows the recent killing of two Catholic priests, Father Joseph Gor and Father Felix Tyolaha and 15 other worshippers at St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Mbalorn, Gwer West Local Government Area of Benue State by suspected herdsmen.

In a communiqué titled, “When Will this Barbarism End?” issued on Thursday and signed by its President, Most Rev. Augustine Akubeze and Secretary, Most Rev. Camillus Umoh, the CBCN urged President Buhari to choose the part of honour by stepping aside and saving the nation from total collapse.

The Bishops condemned the incessant and unabated attacks by the suspected herdsmen whom they said had turned the country into a massive grave yard, noting that the rate of insecurity in Nigeria had become an embarrassment in the eyes of the international community.

The communiqué read in part: “That our two priests, Fr. Joseph Gor and Fr. Felix Tyolaya, along with their parishioners were waylaid in the course of the celebration of the Holy Mass early in the morning, suggests very clearly that their murder was carefully planned. This wicked act cannot be said to be a revenge attack (as is often claimed).

“Whom have these Priests attacked? Indeed we have just discovered that on January 3, this year, Fr. Gor tweeted, ‘We are living in fear. The Fulani are still around here in Mbalom (where they (Priests) were killed). They refuse to go. They still go grazing around. No weapons to defend ourselves.’

“Their desperate cries for security and help went unheeded by those who should have heard them. They would have fled but, true to their vocation, they remained to serve their God unto death.

“We are sad. We are angry. We feel totally exposed and most vulnerable. Faced with these dark clouds of fear and anxiety, our people are daily been told by some to defend themselves. But defend themselves with what?

“The Federal Government, whose primary responsibility is to protect lives, for its part alleges that those who ask the people to defend themselves are inciting them to take the law into their own hands.

“But why can the Federal Government stand back while its security agencies deliberately turn a blind eye to the cries and wailings of helpless and harmless citizens who remain sitting ducks in their homes, farms, highway and now, even in sacred places of worship?

“Inspite of the calls on the President to reconfigure his security apparatus and strategy which the President has deliberately placed in the hands of the adherents of only one religion and the lack of confidence expressed by the CBCN in the security agencies, the bloodletting and destruction of homes and farmlands had increased with intensity and brutality.

While describing the unfolding events as a ticking time bomb that needs to be defused before it explodes, the Bishops continued: “Since the President, who appointed the heads of the nation’s security agencies has refused to caution them even in the face of the chaos and barbarity into which our country has been plunged, we are left with no choice but to conclude that they are acting a script that he approves of.

“If the President cannot keep our country safe, the he automatically loses the trust of the citizens. He should no longer continue to preside over the killing fields and mass graveyard that our country has become.

“Repeated calls from us and many other Nigerians on the President to take very drastic and urgent steps to reverse this ugly tragedy that threatens the foundation of our collective existence and unity as a nation have fallen on deaf ears.

“It is clear to the nation that he has failed in his primary duty of protecting the lives of the Nigerian citizens. Whether this failure is due to inability to perform or lack of political will, it is time for him to choose the path of honour and consider stepping aside to save the nation from total collapse.

“Government should encourage and empower citizens to secure themselves and their environments. This is not the time to disarm people with legally procured weapons of self defense.”