Lagos — Synod of the West, Presbyterian Church of Nigeria, has raised an alarm over what it describes as the inequitable distribution of key Federal appointments in violation of the Federal Character provisions of the 1999 Constitution.

Rising from its Annual Conference for 2009, the Synod, in a communiqué, called on President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua to look into the composition of the Federal Executive Council and indeed all other Federal departments and parastatals with a view to ensuring equity in the appointments of key public office holders.

In the communiqué, jointly signed by the Moderator of the Synod, the Reverend Wembley Emele Uduma and the Clerk, Rev. Solomon Okoro, the Synod condemned the military onslaught on some communites in the Niger Delta and the consequent killings that followed the attacks.

The Church expressed belief in the sanctity of human life and stressed that no man, under whatever guise, had the right to take another person's life. While the Synod urged the parties in the Niger Delta debacle to lay down their arms and embrace peace, it appealed to the Federal Government to take urgent steps to enthrone justice and equity, particularly in the distribution of the wealth of the Niger Delta region as no reasonable peace can be achieved without justice.

The Synod, which met at the Presbyterian Church, Warri, Delta State, noted with dismay, the existing chaos on the Lagos-Benin expressway in particular and indeed other major roads and stated that in addition to the reconstruction of these roads, the rehabilitation of the existing sea ports in Warri, Calabar and Port Harcourt, and the resuscitation of the railway system and the refineries would go a long way in reducing the pressure on the roads and the attendant problems that follow it.

It commended the "good works of the Lagos State Government, particularly in the area of infrastructural and environmental improvement." It urged other state governments to emulate the good example of the Lagos State Government so that the people of Nigeria would reap the benefits of democracy.

On the proliferation of Churches, the Synod expressed sadness that this had not reflected proportionately in the behavioural pattern of the citizenry.