By Jeremy Reynalds, Senior Correspondent, ASSIST News Service (jeremyreynalds@gmail.com)
YOBE, NIGERIA (ANS. JULY 10, 2015)
-- The sister of a man whose miraculous survival from a shot in the
head by Boko Haram took him to testify to the US Congress, has been
killed with two of her children.
According to a story by Illia Djadi for World Watch Monitor (WWM),
Tabita Adamu, 44, her 18-year-old daughter, Haske, and 11-year-old son,
Nuhu died in the July 5 bomb blast during church services in north-east
Nigeria, together with their pastor, an elder and the bomber.
Tabita's brother Habila has become quite well-known after he traveled abroad telling how he'd been “left for dead” in 2012.
The July 5 attack took place between 9 and 10 a.m. as worshipers
gathered inside the City of David Parish Of Redeemed Christian Church Of
God, (RCCG) in Potiskum, in Yobe. That’s one of three states most
affected by the 6-year militant Islamist insurgency Boko Haram.
It also killed the church's new pastor, Rev. Daniel Dotun Okerinola and a church elder, whose name is not known.
Okerinola had moved from the southern town of Ibadan to take over
the church about three months ago. His wife and three children had yet
to join him in Potiskum.
Toyin Gbadegesin, Yobe police spokesman, confirmed the Potiskum deaths.
“A male suicide bomber at about 10 a.m. detonated a bomb at The
Redeemed Church, Jigawa area, in Potiskum, killing five persons,” WWM
said he told reporters.
Tabita, a mother of eight, arrived for the service with six of her
children, but sent four of them home to get money for the collection,
said her brother Habila Adamu.
“That's how God miraculously saved the six children and their father from death.”
WWM said Habila Adamu is a survivor of a Boko Haram attack.
Militants shot him in the face in Nov. 2012 when he refused to renounce
his faith.
He was left for dead in front of his wife and son, but survived -
an incident he recounted in Nov. 2013 to the U.S. House of
Representatives' Subcommittee on Terrorism.
His testimony helped to encourage the US State Department to designate Boko Haram a terrorist organization.
The July 5 blast which killed his sister brought back memories, Adamu told WWM.
“They
fired at my head, and left me for dead but I survived miraculously,” he
said. “I know that God gave me the opportunity of a second chance to
become a voice of the voiceless, the voice of the persecuted Christians,
not only in Nigeria, but in the entire world.”
He added, “God kept me alive in order to make other persecuted Christians strong.”
Shock
The six surviving children are in shock and being comforted by
relatives. Their father collapsed at the news, and is in hospital.
According to WWM, Habila Adamu said Christians are well aware of the dangers they face in north-east Nigeria.
“We know that going to church is a matter of life or death. But we
have already in our mind that no one can stop us from worshiping our
God, no matter the risks. We thank God because he always gives us the
ability to stand for Him.”
Northern local sources report escalating violence, with as many as
32 churches being burned and “many Christians” killed in Yobe's
neighboring Borno state over the past few days.
Hours later, twin attacks in Nigeria's central city of Jos killed
at least 44 people and injured 47. No group claimed responsibility for
these twin attacks, but it's believed Boko Haram carried them out.
“Heinous atrocity”
WWM said the July 5 attacks in Potiskum and Jos brought
condemnation from Nigeria's new president, Muhammadu Buhari, who
described them as a “heinous atrocity.”
A Nigeria government spokesperson explained, “Nigerians are a very
religious people, and President Buhari believes that the terrorists who
wantonly attack our places of worship have wilfully declared war on all
that we value, and must, therefore, be confronted with all our might and
collective resolve.'”
The Jos bombings targeted a restaurant and the Yantaya area mosque.
The motive, it’s believed, , was to kill one of Nigeria's most
influential imans critical of Boko Haram. He's survived a previous
assassination attempt, WWM said the BBC reported.
Most Boko Haram violence has occurred in the north and east of the
country, but the group has struck at the central city of Jos before.
Retaliation
WWM said tension is high is Jos, with local reports after the twin
bombs saying at least two churches had been set on fire, allegedly in
retaliation for the mosque bombing, but police intervention prevented
total destruction.
The Potiskum attack, along with the Jos twin blasts, capped a week
of killings that has left over 200 people dead in north and central
Nigeria.
There have been at least three suicide bombs in Potiskum this year.
On Feb. 24, a man killed 15 and injured 53. Two days earlier, six
people in a phone market were killed by a young girl suicide bomber.
Her identity was unknown at the time, but WWM said she is a
reminder to the world that Boko Haram still holds captive the majority
of the 276 schoolgirls originally abducted in April 2014.
Pastor Daniel Awayi of one Potiskum church has been attacked five
times by the Islamic terrorist group, the most recent in January when
yet another young female suicide bomber detonated a bomb at his church
gates.
No one died that time, though several were injured.
Awayi does his best to support victims of the attacks. In January, Awayi came to the UK and spoke to WWM.
On July 7, at least 20 have been killed in a suicide attack at a
government building in the Sabon Gari area of the northern city of
Zaria.
WWM said “Sabon Gari” areas are found in many northern cities, and
were traditionally the areas where workers migrated from other parts of
Nigeria, especially the Christian south.
For further information visit www.worldwatchmonitor.org
Photo captions: 1) Habila Adamu with pictures showing where he was
shot by Boko Haram militants in 2012 (World Watch Monitor) 2) Boko Haram
terrorists on the attack in Nigeria.
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