From Jude Chinedu, Enugu
The Reformed Presbyterian Church of Nigeria (RPCN) has asked President Bola Tinubu to muster the political will and courage to end the worsening security situation.
The church stated this in a statement by the chairman, Media and Communication Board of the RPCN, Dr. Joseph Chukwu, while announcing the communiqué of its Fourth General Assembly meeting at the All Saints Parish, Uburu, Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.
In the communiqué jointly signed by the Moderator-General and the Secretary-General of the Church, Rt. Rev. Chima Uduma and Rev. Cornelius Eke, the church said the rising insecurity had continued to manifest in a spate of kidnapping, armed banditry, cultism, armed robbery, marauding unknown gunmen, and menace of ethnic separatists.
The church also appealed to the Federal Government to hasten action on the release of the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) vehicles promised by the administration for intra and inter-state transport to ease difficulties the masses go through as a result of the fuel subsidy removal.
On the 2023 election tribunals and appeal tribunals, the church stressed the need for judges at all levels to be unbiased and deliver just judgments ito forestall miscarriage of justice, bearing in mind that God is a just God that judges all men according to how they judge others.
The church congratulated the federal and Ebonyi State Governments on their 63rd and 27th anniversaries respectively, and particularly commended the Ebonyi State Governor, Chief Francis Nwifuru, for approving and releasing funds for payment of pensioners’ arrears of gratuity in the state, and for recruiting medical doctors, paramedical officers and civil servants in the state.
The church, however, advised that the recruitment exercise should follow due process in order not to truncate the good intentions of government, even as they advised that pensioners who had sacrificed their all in the service of the land should not be left to suffer in penury.
The church further called on the Ebonyi State Government to do everything within its powers to end communal clashes in the state, while urging the citizens of the state to imbibe the spirit of living in peace with their immediate and far neighbours.
The RPCN also commended the N35,000 salary award for the federal civil servants recently pronounced by President Tinubu, but said the gesture was inadequate when compared to similar awards to the executive class, the legislators and the judicial officers, and considering the prevailing economic situation in the country.
They also called on the state governments and the private sector to implement the same in their establishments.