Catholic order organises pro-life rally against abortion

Urges Govt To Enforce Laws
The call has gone out to the Federal Government again to step up actions in curbing abortion among the citizens and enforcing extant laws against the practice in the country.

Members of the Order of the Knights of St. Mulumba, Lagos Metropolitan Council, made the call at a prolife rally recently held in Sangotedo, Lagos State.

The rally themed: “Knights as Guardians of Human Life” which is against abortion, capital punishment, contraception, same sex marriage, homosexuality, LGBT, euthanasia, kidnapping domestic violence, child abuse and terrorism, commenced from Regina Pacis Catholic Church, Sangotedo before proceeding to the Catholic Church of Annunciation at Abraham Adesanya Estate for Mass.

According to the Grand Knight, Ajah Sub-Council of the Order, WB Samuel Ilugbekhai, the objective of the prolife rally was to draw the attention of Nigerians to the plight of unborn children whose rights are being denied through abortion.

He stated that the Catholic Church, which was founded on the Laws of God, is against the killing of the unborn child noting that even an unborn baby has right just like every human being, especially the right to life.

“The innocent killings of the unborn child is what the rally is against, so that the right of the unborn child is preserved, protected and implemented,” he said.

He deplored the indifference of Nigerians to issues relating to abortion that touch humanity, accusing them of paying lip service to it.

Ilugbekhai urged the government to efficiently enforce the law against abortion in the nation and also put in place a policy framework to actualize the objective of sensitizing people on the evils of the practice.

He said: “It will work. If the people that receive the message at the rally listen and implement it, it will work. If our policy makers even within the church also implement it, it will work. So if the society at large and the world listen to the message it will work.”

Speaking in the same vein, another member, Worthy Physician, Ajah Sub-Council, WB Emmanuel Odey, remarked that abortion is illegal in Nigeria, and the country is one of the nations where the practice is not legalised.

He, however, lamented the high rate of abortion in the Nigeria and the world noting that according to figures available to them, about 1.25 million abortions are carried out in Nigeria and 56 million worldwide every year.

“Every life matters, and we believe that life begins at conception. From the moment there is fertilization, a human being exists and until natural death occurs, that life has to be respected,” he observed.

Noting that human life is sacred, Odey explained the church is against euthanasia. He added that mercy killing as it is being called is the killing of the most vulnerable in society when treatments exist to take care of them till natural death.

He observed that society is supposed to support such people until they die peacefully.

Condemning in-vitro fertilization as unnatural means of procreation, Odey observed that people can now decide on the physical appearance of their child which is against the natural order of things.

“People now design babies. Now you can choose the colour of eyes, hairs and so on of babies. But before they did these a lot of babies were killed. Some are frozen and kept waiting to be born,” he noted.

He argued that these babies are being denied of their right to life.

Also worried by plights of abandoned children in the country, the order said they are set to provide support for them and motherless babies’ homes to settle them and bring dignity to the nation.