Tensions have risen in Kano State, northern Nigeria after State Environmental Protection Agency (KASEPA) employees, backed up by members of the state's mobile police force, demolished a Catholic church in an area south of Kano City.
The demolition is reported to have taken place on the morning of 19 June, when KAPESA workers and mobile police officers turned up unexpectedly at Christ the King Church (CKC) in Naibawa. Musical instruments, furniture and other objects were removed from the church and either looted or set on fire once the building had been bulldozed.
According to local sources, CKC had received an official letter in early June ordering them to vacate their property. Church officials had subsequently written a letter of appeal to local authorities and were still awaiting a response when the church was demolished.
Churches in Nigeria's Shari'ah states are regularly destroyed during religious violence or demolished by state authorities, often for spurious reasons. They are hardly ever compensated adequately for their losses; neither are they offered alternative sites if deemed to be in the way of town planning projects.
In Kano, church demolitions have taken place regularly since Governor Ibrahim Shekarau first came to office in 2003, and appear to be gathering momentum during his second term. Local NGOs report that churches are increasingly being served with notices to quit their land or buildings.
In February this year, a mob armed with machetes set fire to church buildings belonging to the Evangelical Church of West Africa (ECWA) in Giginyu, Kano State, before looting and dismantling the property. Although Governor Shekarau agreed to compensate and provide an alternative site for the church, to date neither has been forthcoming. Also in February, churches in the Badawa area of Kanowere in Kano State were served with notices to vacate their premises.
In addition, a HEKAN (Combined Churches of Christ) Church in the Rogo Local Government Area (LGA), whose site was seized in 2006 for the construction of an Islamic school after the church had been destroyed in religious violence, has yet to receive a promised alternative site and adequate compensation for its losses.
CSW Advocacy Director Alexa Papadouris said: "It is disappointing that the Catholic church in Naibawa was demolished even though an appeal was pending. Moreover, the burning and looting of church property during an operation supervised by the police and state employees is wholly unacceptable. CSW calls on the state government of Kano to fully review the circumstances surrounding this latest demolition and to take decisive action against any employees found to have taken part in the burning or theft of church property. We also urge the State government to fulfil its earlier undertaking to provide adequate compensation and a suitable alternative site for the ECWA Church in Giginyu, and to also ensure that the HEKAN Church finally receives the compensation and new venue promised to them so long ago."
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