Claims at the weekend by Regional Chairman of the Church of Christ in Nations [COCIN] for Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of Plateau State, Rev. Ezekiel Dachomo, that his children were being denied admission into tertiary institutions because of his “blunt stance on the killing of Christians in Plateau State and other parts of Nigeria” should be immediately investigated by the Department of State Services because it is capable of heightening tension in the country, further poisoning inter-communal relations and also feeding the misguided foreign attacks on this country.
Dachomo said on Friday that his children, “who are qualified for university admission, have repeatedly been denied opportunities, particularly by institutions in northern Nigeria.” He said this is due to his public advocacy against what he described as the systematic killing of Christians by bandits and terrorists. He saidhis surname has become a major obstacle during the admission process. “Once they see the name ‘Dachomo’, the application is set aside or quietly dropped,” he said. He claimed that this occurred on more than three occasions, and that applications submitted by his children to different institutions were rejected without clear explanations. “The pattern has repeated itself, mostly in northern institutions. This is not a mere coincidence. My children are being targeted because of my name and my stance in exposing Christian genocide,” he said.
This allegation deserves a prompt and thorough investigation by DSS and Nigeria Police. Dachomo should supply his children’s WAEC and JAMB results for JAMB to establish that they were indeed qualified for university admission. He should show proof that they applied to several institutions for admissions within a short period of a few months [implausible as that sounds], and he should name the “many” institutions in the North that rejected them without basis.
Unless he proves these damning allegations to DSS and the police, he should be charged to court for making false allegations capable of damaging national security in order to hoodwink right-wing evangelical American societies to offer scholarships to his children and to arrange a visa for him to relocate abroad in order “to escape religious persecution in Nigeria.”
DSS must get to the root of this very dangerous claim by Rev. Dachomo, lest other desperadoes try the same ignoble tactic for selfish ends.
