RismadarVoice Reporters, May 25, 2026
One of Nigeria’s most influential Christian bodies, the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) has issued one of its starkest warnings yet to the Federal Government, declaring that unchecked terrorism, relentless banditry and widespread kidnappings are pushing the Nigerian populace to a dangerous breaking point and that political indifference is making things worse.
The National President, Bishop Francis Wale Oke, delivered the sobering message on Sunday in Ibadan at a press conference marking the close of a three-day national fasting and prayer programme held from May 22 to 24 to commemorate Global Pentecost Day.
Oke painted a grim picture of a nation under siege one where farmers are slaughtered on their own land, soldiers are ambushed and killed, communities are sacked by armed groups, and millions of citizens live under a cloud of fear with no credible relief in sight. He warned that the growing desperation of ordinary Nigerians, if left unaddressed, could ignite a wave of retaliatory violence that the country may not easily contain.
“Nigerians are sick and tired of this evil and the apparent misplaced focus on winning elections by all means rather than focusing the full weight of our law and federal might to crush the killers of Nigerians,” Oke declared, accusing the political class of prioritising electoral calculations over the lives of citizens.
The PFN president reserved particular anguish for what he described as a compromised security architecture, lamenting that military officers and soldiers of proven bravery were being cut down in ambushes he attributed to internal infiltration of the nation’s security apparatus.
“Our valiant Generals and their gallant soldiers are being killed like chickens because our security system has been infiltrated and fatally compromised,” he said.
Oke stressed that the consequences of Nigeria’s insecurity crisis extended far beyond the loss of life. According to him, the violence was fracturing national unity, deterring foreign investment, accelerating the emigration of skilled Nigerians, eroding public trust in government institutions, and dismantling the social fabric that binds the country together.
He also disclosed that the PFN had, on multiple occasions, actively discouraged aggrieved Christian youths from responding to attacks with counter-violence a restraint he said was becoming increasingly difficult to sustain amid relentless provocations.
The fellowship, which held its National Executive Council meeting on the night of May 19, 2026, said the gathering resolved to mobilise its membership across all 36 states into a season of spiritual warfare, fasting and intercession for the nation before speaking publicly on the crisis.
“We have fasted. We have prayed. Now we speak,” Oke declared, calling on the Federal Government to honour its constitutional and moral obligation to protect every Nigerian citizen regardless of ethnicity or religious affiliation.
