The Church of the Brethren in Nigeria, also known in Hausa as Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYA), reported that Boko Haram insurgents destroyed 1,390 church auditoriums.
READ ALSO: Former Kaduna governors should swear that they never embezzled money ~ El-Rufai
Rev Joel Billi, President of the EYN, said during a press conference at the church headquarters in Kwarhi on Wednesday as part of the church’s centennial activities that the Boko Haram insurgency has posed the greatest stress to the church in its 100 years in Nigeria.
The church, which began in Garkida in 1923 and now has its headquarters in Kwarhi, Adamawa State, is described as the world’s largest Church of the Brethren denomination.
The majority of the church’s local congregations are in Adamawa State, the rest of the North East, and parts of the North Central, particularly in Jos, Plateau State, where the church temporarily relocated its headquarters in 2014 after Boko Haram attackers destroyed the now-rebuilt headquarters in Kwarhi.
“At the height of the Boko Haram insurgency, 36 of the then 50 EYN DCCs were completely displaced,” the EYN president said at a press conference on Wednesday. Only seven DCC were not directly affected by the insurgency, and seven were partially closed.
“The insurgents destroyed 278 LCC buildings and 1,390 LCB church auditoriums, out of the 456 local councils and 2280 local church branches at the time.”
According to the EYN president, insurgents have killed or abducted a large number of church members, and the abduction of church members has continued to this day.
“All glory to God,” he added, “because, despite the fact that the insurgency was orchestrated to uproot Christianity in its area of operation, God in his faithfulness used the insurgency to propagate the gospel and expand the frontiers of EYN in Nigeria and the Cameroons.”
He explained that many of those displaced by Boko Haram “carried their faith with them wherever they went,” and that “today, several EYN churches have sprung up in places where our members went to sojourn due to the insurgency.”
