They were attacked in two churches in the northern states of Yobe and Borno.
No fewer than 12 people were killed in Piri village, Potiskum in Yobe State and Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, on Monday, December 24, 2012 when gunmen suspected to be members of Islamic sect, Boko Haram, attacked two churches in northern Nigeria during Christmas eve midnight services.
The American Cable News Network, CCN, quoted the police as saying one attack took place at the Church of Christ in Nations near the town of Potiskum. The gunmen were said to have attacked worshippers during prayer - killing six people, including the pastor - and setting the building on fire. Worshippers were also attacked at the First Baptist Church in Maiduguri where a deacon and five church members were killed, The Punch newspaper of Nigeria reported. Other reports said the attack near Potiskum targeted the Evangelical Church of West Africa, ECWA, in the village of Piri at about 2 am on Christmas Day.
The head of the Network for Justice, a human rights group, Zakari Adamu, told the BBC that the gunmen later burnt over 20 homes of Christians following the attack. A spokesman for the military, Eli Lazarus, told the press that unknown gunmen attempted to attack Potiskum, but were repelled by troops. It was while the gunmen were fleeing that they attacked worshippers in Piri. Commenting on the incident, the head of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, in Yobe State, Idi Garba, said many worshippers at ECWA and neighbours to the church building were still missing, having fled their homes during the attack.
Meanwhile, CAN President, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, on Tuesday, December 25, 2012 condemned the attacks on the churches. He described the incident as a bestial act against a people exercising their right to worship. He challenged worshippers in the area not to give in to what he called evil perpetrators by abandoning their ancestral homes, stressing that doing so would be regarded as cowardice. The violence came on the same day Pope Benedict XVI in his Christmas Day address prayed for harmony in Nigeria, lamenting what he called savage acts of terrorism that frequently target Christians.
