Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, Sultan of Sokoto has lambasted Christian leaders.

He said; “It pains me when we gather at NIREC or other meetings and agreed on measures that would promote religious peace, unity and tolerance. But shortly after, you will begin to hear stories of persecution here and there.”

“If we go out shouting, marching, dancing and singing that people of a particular religion are being persecuted and killed, you also forget people of other religions are also affected in the killings by the same enemies of the state.”

“We must not allow terrorists to come in between us and divide us. If we mistakenly do, then we are finished. There is nothing wrong with any religious organisation marching on the street to call for God’s interventions in a particular issue. But we should not make a show of such things because we want to be visible and, therefore, bring more problems to the nation.”

“We have been reading and hearing reports about the persecution of Christians in Nigeria and I keep asking myself, how? Christians are being killed, Muslims are also being killed, and they are all lives created by God.”

“For me, there is no persecution of anybody in this country. If you claim there is the persecution of Christians in Nigeria, there would also be claims of persecution of Muslims. But that would not solve the problem.”

“People claim they are denied places to build mosques, churches in some parts of the country. But the right thing to do in such cases is to approach relevant authorities and not to make claims of persecution.”