But Government’s Blind Eye to Terrorist Hub Derided by Experts
By TruthNigeria Staff
KADUNA (Nigeria) – The United States has again expressed concern over the worsening security situation in Nigeria following the abduction of worshippers in Kaduna State.
A high-ranking representative of the U.S. State Department urged the Federal Government of Nigeria to take stronger and more decisive action to protect Christians in Nigeria.
Speaking at the United States–Nigeria Working Group meeting in Abuja on Thursday, the U.S. Under Secretary for Political Affairs, Allison Hooker, said the Kaduna incident underscores the urgent need for improved protection of vulnerable communities, particularly Christians who continue to face targeted attacks.
While acknowledging efforts by Nigerian authorities, the Hooker warned that persistent kidnappings, killings and forced displacements remain a serious threat to religious freedom and national stability, stressing the importance of accountability and justice for victims, according to Vanguard.
Ribadu: Attacks on Christians Are Attacks on Nigeria
Nigeria’s National Security Adviser, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, responding to the U.S. concerns, reaffirmed the Federal Government’s commitment to confronting insecurity across the country.
Ribadu described violence targeted at religious communities as unacceptable, stressing that Nigeria is a plural society and that attacks on Christians or any faith group amount to an assault on the Nigerian state itself.
Ribadu said security agencies have been directed to intensify operations, improve intelligence coordination and ensure that perpetrators of abductions and religiously-motivated violence are identified, arrested and prosecuted, assuring that the government will not tolerate impunity, according to Vanguard.
The National Security Advisor’s assertion that the government would not tolerate Fulani terrorist takeovers of Northcentral Nigeria drew rebuke from security experts interviewed by TruthNigeria.
Security Analysts point to documented tolerance of a notorious kidnapper’s camp in Rijana forest, Chikun county of South Kaduna.
Rijana, a Well-Known Terrorist Camp: Experts
Rijana, about 30 miles southwest of Kaduna metropolis, is believed to host a network of terrorist kidnappers’ camps hidden in uncharted bushes, hills and riverine areas west of the town, which merge seamlessly with the Shiroro jihadist strongholds in neighboring Niger State. TruthNigeria stories about Rijana go back to October of 2024.
In February, 2025, Nuhu Ribadu himself celebrated at his office in Abuja the rescue of 59 hostages from Rijana forest.
TruthNigeria has posted no fewer than 14 stories giving details about torture of hostages, conditions of the camps; the numbers of hostages, and typical amounts of ransoms paid. Yet no action was taken to invade Rijana forest and rescue the hostages. Not a single Nigerian media organization attempted to corroborate TruthNigeria’s reports. Calls to police and military spokesmen went unanswered and unreturned.
Nigerian Government Coddles Rijana Terror Hub
Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State hinted at the existence of Rijana terror hub during his fact-finding visit to Kurmin Walli on Wednesday (21st January 2026).
“We understand how vulnerable the villages around here are,” he said to the crowd wearing forlorn faces after the kidnapping of their 166 kinsmen and women the previous Sunday morning.
“This village is not far from Rijana which is a place of security concern,” he added. “I have spoken to the Minister of Defence (Gen. Musa Christopher Gwabin (rtd) who is from Kaduna State (a native of Zangon Kataf county in Southern Kaduna) and he has agreed that a military formation would be built around here very soon,” he said.
Kurmin Walli is about 20 miles east of Rijana (see attached map)
“The idea of having a military formation around Kurmin Walli as revealed by Gov. Uba Sani of Kaduna State, is a confirmation that the government has agreed to leave the terrorists of Rijana Forest alone with their banditry,” according to Prof. Emma Musa of the Department of Sociology and Criminology, Niger State University Lapai, speaking to TruthNigeria on Friday.
“It is very curious that for the years that those terrorists have been operating from that area into Niger State, Western and Southern Kaduna and even into the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), yet the reaction of the military is lackadaisical and indolent compared to other areas in the Northwest,” he said.
“This is what we call selective enforcement of security mandates,” he said.
“Gov Uba Sani has inadvertently told the world that the epicenter of terrorism, which is Rijana, has come to stay. The best that the government can do is to create walls around it, but will not uproot it,” Musa said.
“The shadow economic proceeds from the criminality of Rijana should form a basis for rigorous studies in criminology,” he added.
Bankrupting Christians as Instrument of Genocide
“I know how kidnappers from that Rijana forest have sacked scores of communities after kidnapping thousands and extracting billions of Naira (millions of US dollars) in the past seven years,” he said.
“What Donald Trump has not realized is that there is ongoing economic genocide against the Christians of the Middle Belt, he said.
“What came out of the mouth of Gov. Uba Sani confirmed what some of us have been suspecting since he collaborated with Nuhu Ribadu and declared amnesty for the so-called terrorists and bandits ravaging mostly the Christian enclaves of Southern Kaduna,” said Col. Dauda Gora (rtd), a former Nigerian Army intelligence officer who now runs a private security firm in Kaduna.
Salafist Jihadists in Government
“Rijana terrorists camps are not disappearing anytime soon,” Gora said.
“Rijana is the hub of financial flows to the jihadists networks using ransom funds largely extracted from Christian hostages,” he said.
“Anyone who is fooled that billions of Naira will not go to the terrorists before these 166 kidnapped Kurmin Walli hostages are released would be a dumb person,” he said.
“There is no way that the villagers could pay that kind of ransom. Only the government can!” Gora added.
More Lands Fall to Terrorists
“When communities cannot pay ransom anymore and cannot pay the tax placed on them before farming and before harvesting, they are forced to leave the community for the Fulani terrorists, thus expanding more lands under their control,” Gora said.
“Apart from the small Rijana town, all villagers within 30 kilometers radius of it are deserted and are now in the full grip of Fulani Terrorists groups,” Gora added.
“While it is true that the Nigerian state is seriously engaged in freeing Muslims areas from Fulani terrorists’ groups, little is done to free Christians of the Middle Belt from the Jihad under the cover of banditry,” he said.
