President Tinubu Accused of Spreading False Narrative
By Masara Kim
(Jos) Nigerian Christian leaders are accusing President Bola Tinubu of downplaying the severity of terror attacks in the country. Following recent attacks that killed more than 100 people in Plateau State, Tinubu called for “love and unity,” but church leaders say his response doesn’t go far enough.
They are now calling for international intervention to address the violence targeting Christian communities, criticizing the President for labeling the attacks as “clashes”.
The latest attacks in Plateau State add to a record of ongoing decades-old assaults on Christian communities in Africa’s most populous country, have roiled global rights activists including in the United States.
The attacks concentrated in the green middle belt region of Nigeria have been credited to terrorists identifying as Fulani tribe. The majority-Muslim Fulani ethnicity claims more than 10 million members in Nigeria and is credited with the earliest jihad wars across west- and central Africa.
Many Fulani members have excelled in peaceful ventures such as politics, education and trade. However, a jihadist faction has caused six times more Christian deaths than Boko Haram according to monitoring groups.
In 2024 alone, Fulani militants killed more than 5,000 Christians in Nigeria, according to Intersociety, a Catholic-inspired international nonprofit which tracks genocide around the world. Plateau State, with the highest death tolls alongside Benue State, alone accounted for 1,336 Christian murders between December 2023 and February 2024 alone according to Amnesty International.
TruthNigeria has documented dozens of incidents where even babies were slaughtered in their sleep. During the April 14 attacks in Bassa county, 8 people, including two women and six children aged 2-12 were butchered in one room.
“How can this be described as a communal clash or retaliatory attack?” queried Rev. Dr. Amos Mohzo, spokesman for the Christian leaders in Plateau State.
“The Fulanis come armed, but the locals are defenseless, unarmed, innocent citizens,” said Rev. Mohzo during a peaceful demonstration on April 21st.
“What is strange is that Christians are being killed in the dead of the night in their homes and in the daytime on their farms, yet Fulani houses remain untouched by the attackers,” said Mohzo, President of the Church Denominational Leaders Forum in Plateau State.
“Sadly, truth has become the first casualty of injustice and oppression,” Mohzo said, insisting the attacks are genocidal, aimed at ethnic displacements and land-grabbing to impose a caliphate in the largest black nation on earth.
“It is important to set the record straight by stating that these are not communal clashes,” said Mohzo.
“The killings are neither farmer-herder clashes nor retaliatory attacks,” Mohzo said, “but calculated, planned and orchestrated acts of terror committed by one group against another, entirely unprovoked.”
“The [attacks] give credence to growing assertion of ethno-religious genocide,” he said, demanding immediate action, including support from world leaders.
President Bola Tinubu called on “community, spiritual, and political leaders within and beyond [Plateau] state to unite and end the cycle of retaliatory attacks that have made life unbearable for affected communities,” in a statement on April 14.
“The ongoing violence between communities in Plateau State, rooted in misunderstandings between different ethnic and religious groups, must cease,” President Tinubu stated.
“The Federal Government remains committed to supporting Governor Mutfwang and the Plateau State government in promoting dialogue, fostering social cohesion, and ensuring accountability—crucial steps towards permanently resolving the conflict in Plateau,” Tinubu said.
Mr. Tinubu’s comments followed days after his appointee criticized a report by the United States House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa highlighting Christian persecution in Nigeria.
The Special Adviser on Policy Communication to Mr. Tinubu, Daniel Bwala, on April 11 claimed there have been no instances of Christian persecution in the country since the President came into office on May 29, 2023.
“The administration of President Bola Tinubu promotes religious tolerance,” Bwala wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
“Since May 29, 2023, when President Tinubu assumed office as President, there have been little or no cases at all of persecution of Christians anywhere in the country.”
President’s Claims Contradicted by Evidence
Merely two days after the widely criticized statement, more than 55 Christians were slaughtered mere feet from a 2000-man army base approximately 15 miles west of Jos the capital of Plateau State.
Witnesses told TruthNigeria the attackers clad in black stormed the village of Zikke located in the Bassa county at minutes after midnight on April 14, shouting “Allahu Akhbar” as they slaughtered residents. The majority-evangelical Christians had just returned from Palm Sunday celebrations when they were attacked in their sleep. The attacks followed similar raids 60 miles away in the Bokkos county which killed at least 52 Christians on April 2.
During both incidents, soldiers reportedly arrived late to the scene and failed to go after the terrorists who could still be heard shooting their guns as they made their way into the surrounding mountains.
“The failure to effectively address these atrocities represents a fundamental abdication of the government’s primary duty to ensure the well-being of citizens,” Mohzo said, urging foreign intervention.
“The international community needs to do much in providing sincere and genuine support to end terror in Nigeria and all over Africa,” Mohzo said.
“They should do this by tracking the sources of terrorism financing and instituting strict penalties to freeze blood money accounts,” he said.
“The international community must also give a prominent voice and visibility to the victims of armed Fulani militia operating in the Middle West of Nigeria, other parts of the country, and the rest of sub-Saharan Africa,” he said.
In a response, Governor Caleb Mutfwang acknowledged the ongoing targeted killings and assured of ongoing efforts to secure local communities.
“Let me assure you also that we do not lack the capacity to rise to the defense of the defenseless,” Mutfwang declared.
“The time has come, and the time is now when we can no longer keep silent,” said Mutfwang.
“The time has come when every Nigerian, every human being of conscience must arise to duty and say enough is enough,” Mutfwang stated.
“In the past, people were arrested but the investigation was not concluded. They were released,” the Governor said.
“But this time, by the grace of God, I will ensure that anyone that has been arrested in connection with these killings does not go scot-free. We will seek justice for the dead,” he stressed.
“But beyond that, we have been discussing with Mr. President and the heads of security agencies [on] how to re-strategize to protect our communities,” he said, urging self-defense by local communities.
Masara Kim is an award-winning conflict reporter in Jos Nigeria and a senior editor at TruthNigeria.
