BREAKING NEWS: 70 Catholic Churches burnt in Benue crises – official

The Catholic Church in Benue says 70 of its Churches have been
destroyed in the crises that rocked Benue in the past few months.
Rev. Felix Apine, Coordinator, Justice Development and Peace
Commission (JDPC), an outreach arm of the Church, told the News Agency
of Nigeria (NAN) in Makurdi that the destroyed Churches were outreach
arms of the Diocese.
"Thirty Churches, mostly outreach stations in Gwer West Local
Government were either burnt or completely destroyed, while the
parishioners had fled to other villages for safety. The remaining 40
are in Guma Local Government Area,'' he said.
The cleric said that primary and secondary schools belonging to the
Diocese in the affected areas had also been destroyed.
The Secretary to the Catholic Bishop of Makurdi Diocese, Rev. Fr.
Moses Mbachie, who also spoke to NAN, confirmed that "more than 70
Churches" had been destroyed and described the situation as "very
sad''.
The Director, Information and Communication of the Diocese, Rev. Dr
Moses Iorapuu, also spoke on the issue and said that the development
was indeed saddening.
"The situation is very bad; in fact, you can goto the affected
parishes to physically ascertain the damage yourself,'' he said.
Archbishop Yiman Orkwar, Benue Chairman of the Christian Association
of Nigeria (CAN), who also confirmed the destruction of Churches and
schools, however, said that CAN was still taking inventory of the
total number of Churches destroyed.
Reacting to the claims, Mr Daniel Ezeala, Public Relations Officer,
Benue Police Command said that the command was not aware of such
destruction.
Ezeala told NAN that the command had not been informed of such
destruction and alleged that people were just coming up with "all
kinds of speculations about things that never happened."
NAN reports that the state had been turned into a theatre of various
types of crises allegedly between herdsmen and Tiv farmers mostly in
the hinterlands. (NAN)