Nigeria: Pastor hacked to death for leading Muslims to Christ

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The Rev. Yohanna Shuaibu of New Life Church in Nigeria’s Kano state was hacked to death last month by an Islamist mob apparently angered that the pastor had led many Muslims to Christ, Morning Star News (MSN) reports.

The chairman of the local chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Sumaila County, Pastor Shuaibu died in the early hours of September 23 after a mob of Islamists attacked him with machetes the previous night, MSN reports. The pastor’s wife and children were able to escape into the night, but the mob burned down their home. The family are understood to be bereft and with no income.

The Islamists claimed they were exacting revenge for the killing of a local woman whom they said was murdered by a Christian convert, MSN reports.

“The Muslims felt the young man who killed the woman in a fight is a Christian, and they likely targeted the pastor for attack because it was through the ministry of Pastor Shuaibu that many Muslims were converted to the Christian faith,” Hosle Tongnan Michael, a friend, and colleague of Pastor Shuaibu told MSN.

Michael added that Pastor Shuaibu was instrumental in building a school for indigenous Hausa Christian children, providing education that would have been denied them on account of their faith. “Recently we have heard of how the growth of the missionary base in Massu had been envied by the Muslims, and they wished for its uprooting from the environment for no justifiable reasons,” Michael said.

“We know that at this kind of time, it is an immeasurable risk to be a Christian, especially in the northern part of Nigeria,” Michael said. “Anyone serving Christ can’t be sure of being alive the following day in northern Nigeria.”

Rights groups report that Nigeria ranks number 1 in the world for murders of Christians for their faith.

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