We Shall Stand for Our People, say pastors, leaders, professionals

Contact: Laolu Akande, Executive Director, Christian Association of Nigerian-Americans (CANAN), 516-819-4355, laolu@cananusa.org

NEW YORK, Oct. 19, 2012 /Christian Newswire/ -- Nigerian-American Christians will not sit-by idly as our brethren are being slaughtered in Nigeria by extreme and fundamental terrorists.

To this end we are addressing a press conference.

Press Conference Details

WHERE: National Press Club, Murrow Room

WHEN: Tuesday, Oct 23, 2012, at 10 a.m. 

CANAN leaders, some of whom will address the conference include:

Dr. James Fadele, a retired Senior Design Engineer at Ford, now senior pastor and leader of one of the largest Christian denominations in the U.S., Redeemed Christian Church of God, North America. He is the Chairman of the association.

Ms. Oby Ezekwesili, immediate Vice President of the World Bank-Africa Region, a trustee of the association.

Laolu Akande, the longest serving Nigerian foreign correspondent in the United States and (African) at the United Nations, who is the association's Executive Director.

Emmanuel Ogebe, a religious freedom advocate, and CANAN's governmental affairs representative.

The challenge that the Boko Haram menace has thrown is that of the good fight of faith. Boko Haram is a threat not only to Nigerians, but to U.S. interests. This much the U.S. Congress have said.

CANAN will take up that challenge and use peaceful and non-violent means to fight back. Christians and innocent Nigerians of all hues have become victims of the senseless killings by the terrorist group.

But it is also a challenge to the Nigerian government, its Police Force, and other security agencies in the nation.

We also call upon the United States government and all people of goodwill around the world to pay due attention to what is happening in Nigeria, in order to defend our common humanity.

We call on the international community not to remain quiet.

We call on the U.S. government to review its present policy which falls short of correctly designating the Boko Haram as a terrorist group that it is!

As for CANAN, formed recently in New York, we shall not keep quiet, and we ask for the support of the American people.

CANAN will avail itself of its international contacts here in the U.S. and elsewhere to equip Nigerian Christians against lawlessness and the disturbingly recurrent threat to their fundamental rights.