Cleric declares 40-day prayers, says God has put Nigeria’s enemies to shame

The National Inter-Faith and Religious Organisation for Peace (NIFROP) says the enemies of Nigeria’s peaceful co-existence and tranquillity have been put to shame.

The inter-religious group said this while declaring a 40-day fasting and prayer at the Unity Fountain in Abuja. The group said the prayer is country’s “deliverance from the spirit of disunity”.

In an address by Sunday Garuba, its national president, the group said it seemed as though these adversaries were succeeding with the spate of terrorism, banditry, kidnappings, robberies, ethnic strife and other negative occurrences.

Garuba said the blood of those unjustly killed by people that seek personal profits from all manners of evil cried for vengeance and almost ruined the nation.

“God has placed an army of host permanently on standby to frustrate their plans and bring their evil expectations to nought,” he said.

The cleric added that peace is returning to Nigeria, noting that the “killer herdsmen” are now being exposed, political backers are no longer a mystery while bandits have opened up about what was at the root of the death campaign.

The Inter-Faith group therefore called on Nigerians not to wary or faint, sustaining the same momentum as the county is on the right path to greatness.

Read full statement below:

May the peace of God abide with us all at all times. We want to start by thanking brethren that have kept the faith since we began this 40-days of intercession, fasting and prayers to deliver our dear country, Nigeria, from the spirit of disunity.

The period preceding this programme was one of heightened tension, uncertainty, fear and apprehension that our God given country was on the path to falling off the cliff. They were dark days in need of the light that only God can shine on dismal situations. The despondency that blanketed the nation was understandable as most of us feared that the spate of terrorism, banditry, kidnappings, robberies, ethnic strife, increasing incidents of suicides and other negative occurrences meant that the enemies of Nigeria were succeeding.

We thank God that as believers we did not become fixated on our own abilities and wisdom but that we rather resort to God our creator by way of the 40-Days of fasting and prayer centred here at Unity Square in Abuja while brethren were encouraged to intercede on behalf of the country from whatever part of the world they may be. We made that commitment to stand in the space on behalf of Nigeria while pleading for mercy for the things that might have been done wrong in the country in the past and for peace and prosperity to return to the land of our fathers.

In the course of our intercession, we have been led in the spirit to realize that there are yokes to be broken for the captives to be set free. We therefore pleaded for God to break these yokes. We broke the bondage that the country has been put into by the inordinate ambition of men who tainted the land with the blood of the innocent, the blood that cry for vengeance because they were unjustly killed by people that seek personal profits from all manners of evil. We have destroyed the shackles and fetters put on the nation by those that had no qualms handing the country over to the devil in exchange for selfish gains.

Even for those that had consistently prophesied doom into the future of our nation we received a new message from the Most High. As we waited on God we were given the prophecy of hope, a message of renewal and a promise of rebirth. We are now confident that in whatever form the evil ones rise against the country the God has placed an army of host permanently on standby to frustrate their plans and bring their evil expectations to nought. They shall plot evil for the country and have it manifest only in their own lives. Our dear country will only grow from strength to strength and from glory to glory.

Brethren, within days of starting the fasting and prayer programme, we began to see manifestation of the power of God as we experience the signs and wonder that point to the fact that we are beginning to overcome the demon of division amongst us. It all started with one incident after the other that expose those behind the confusion, violence and deaths in the land. Incidents that once appeared spontaneous suddenly begin to appear in different light that clearly exposed the persons behind them.

Peace is returning to Nigeria. The killer herdsmen are now being exposed to be herders of evil from all ethnic configurations across the country, who have no animal to pasture but are rather intent on exploiting that identity to conceal their evil enterprise. The political backers of such criminals have also been exposed such that we now know that some of them are sponsored purely to cause a sense of insecurity. Even the Ohaneze Ndigbo President has confessed that some of his members are committing crimes and alleging that others are involved.

The so called terrorists have also been exposed as the employees of certain interests that are bent on destroying the country. They have with their own mouth begin to recount how they are being sponsored to cause bloodbath to justify the false claims being made by these sponsors. These confessions have proven useful for the military to hunt down the ones that have refused to repent and embrace peace.

The bandits have opened up about what was at the root of the campaign of death they waged in the north-west of the country. Again, it is disheartening that their evil behaviour was directly tied to the actions and activities of certain people, who ordinarily should have been working for the improvement of the lives of the masses.

Our prayers and fasting have brought positive development in the fight against kidnapping. In the period since we began, the workings of kidnap gangs and their extensive network that span across the security agencies have been exposed and major arrests made. We are now assured that even more networks that operate in the dark will soon be burnt as the light of God burns brighter to expose and destroy the evil in our land. We are seeing more results as more kingpins in the kidnappers’ food chain are being arrested as opposed to only apprehending low level operatives. Large caches of arms are also being retrieved from these criminals.

We have in the same period seen that God is not limited by space and distance because even the criminal financial networks that are used to finance some of these evils were busted in far away United States of America. The people who had been stealing from others to finance terrorists have been exposed and have now been arrested. We thank God that were never for once misled into envying their false lifestyles but that we rather waited on the Lord for all our needs.

Our thanks to God for these breakthrough in such a short space of time are limitless. We will now devote the days ahead to thanking God for the turn around going on in the country even as we pray that the Lord will perfect that which he has started. We are confident that more of those carrying out evil against Nigeria will be exposed until there shall be none of the them left to trouble the country. We also pray that the spirit of God should arrest any new plans being hatched to resume the commission of these evil acts.

Brethren, God has given us victory on the spiritual front; we must now as a people affirmatively take steps that will ensure that we win the battles against disunity on the human front. Those that precipitated these problems did so to cause division among us as citizens of a country, it is now up to us to work on uniting ourselves now that the enemies of the country have been put to shame. The demons of division and disunity have been banished from among us and we must do everything to make sure they do not return to torment the people of God.

We appeal to you brethren not to give up praying. We must in the same way not relent in praising and thanking God for what he has done, what he is doing and what he will do concerning the peace and prosperity of Nigeria.
It shall be well with us.