by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - Muslim Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria’s Plateau state shot a Christian school director in the head before shooting his wife in the back and his two children in the feet on May 5, sources told Morningstar News.
Rev. Bayo Famonure, head of the Messiah College Christian high school, said he was shot at his home on the school’s premises in Gana Ropp village, Barkin Ladi County on Tuesday night. Famonure said his wife and children were also shot when eight herdsmen stormed the school while the family was asleep. In a text message, Pastor Famonure told Morning Star News: “Yes, I was shot in the head, but the bullet didn’t enter. It’s a miracle.” Sources said Famonure’s wife Na’omi was taken to University Teaching Hospital where she had surgery on her back on Wednesday and was in stable condition. Famonure said the children were also in stable health and that the family had been “chatting.”
Thanking God for the family’s survival, Rev. Danjuma Byang of the Christian Association of Nigeria told Morning Star News: “Let’s also pray for our government and security agencies for sincerity on their part. In obedience to government directives, people stay in their homes, and some marauding herdsmen follow them home and mow them down; and nothing happens afterwards.”
Two days before the attack on the Famonure family, at around 9.30 pm on Sunday, May 3, four Christians were ambushed and killed by Fulani herdsmen in Miango County, sources told Morning Star News. Local resident Moses Gata said the victims had all belonged to the Winning All Evangelical Church. “They met their untimely death in Adu village when they were ambushed and shot by Fulani gunmen,” Gata said. “Three of them, Emmanuel Kure, Chohu Nyangu and Friday Musa, were all killed on the spot with a spray of bullets, while Anta Yakubu sustained some serious bullet injuries and later died at Enos Hospital Miango.”
Christian Solidarity International (CSI) issued a genocide warning for Nigeria on January 30. CSI called on the United Nations Security Council to take action against “a rising tide of violence directed against Nigerian Christians and others classified as ‘infidels’ by Islamist militants in the country’s north and middle belt regions.” Nigeria ranks 2nd after Pakistan on the Open Doors 2020 World Watch List of countries in which Christians are killed for their faith.