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A group of Muslim youths on Friday attacked St. Philips Catholic Parish, Baki Iku, close to Zuma Rock in Niger State, beating up worshipers and clerics and destroying church property.
Eyewitnesses said some Catholics had gone to the church to pray and were attacked by the Muslims who claimed that Friday is their day of prayer and that the Church only has right to worship on Sundays.
The youths had caused a lot of damage to the church before soldiers arrived the scene.
Rev. Fr. Luka Sylvester Gopep, the Vicar-General of the Diocese, confirmed the incident.
Theeagleonline quoted him as saying:
“Sometime around 2pm, some Muslim youths in their hundreds left their Mosque after their Friday Jumat prayer and rushed to the Church premises, climbed the wall and destroyed everything in the Church: the windows, the alter, musical instruments, the chapel.
“The security man in the church premises was beaten to pulp.
“Some women who were holding a prayer meeting were chased away.
“The seminarian who is resident in the premises was also beaten up and chased away.”
The killing of Eunice Olawale Elisha, a mobile preacher of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, by some fanatical Muslims in Kubwa, Abuja is still fresh in the minds of Nigerians.