Military officials, community leaders and survivors confront allegations of targeted attacks and failures of state protection.
By Luka Binniyat
(JOS, Nigeria) – When a woman with one arm stepped forward to describe how a teenage boy severed her limb on her own farm, the Jos town hall shifted from dialogue to reckoning, exposing the deep mistrust between Middle Belt Christians and Fulani communities.
Amputated on the Farm, Attacker Killed
Justina Andrew, 42, is a Christian from the Mada ethnic group of Kagbu precinct, Nasarawa Eggon County, Nasarawa State, in Nigeria’s Middle Belt. Recounting her ordeal before an audience of clerics, politicians, military officers and people from different ethnic groups, she said she was tending her farm on August 12, 2025, when a young Fulani boy approached her carrying a machete.
“He rudely asked me why I was on the farm, but I ignored him and continued planting,” she said.
According to her, the boy suddenly grabbed her plaited hair and shouted at her. When she pushed him away, he attacked her with the cutlass aimed at her head. She raised her left arm to block the blow, but the weapon severed her lower arm.
Screaming, she ran toward her husband nearby.
“My husband killed him,” she said quietly, breaking into tears.
She added that after reporting the incident to police in Nasarawa Eggon, her husband was arrested and remains in prison.
Amputated Over Stolen Cows
Another case of amputation was that of Akas Nyongu, 36, from Kadarko town, Keana precinct of Benue State, Middle Belt of Nigeria. Recounting his ordeal, he said he was heading to his farm around 7 a.m. on June 21, 2018, when three Fulani men accosted him on a bush path.
“They asked if I was among youths who stole their cattle the previous night,” he recalled.
Although he denied any knowledge of the theft, he said the men accused him of looking like a thief and vowed to “remove the hands” he allegedly used to steal cattle.
Nyongu said he tried to flee but was chased down. He grabbed a club to defend himself, but the attackers severed his left arm and inflicted deep cuts on his head, shoulder and ribs. He said the suspects were later released.
Mother of Slain Teen Demands Justice
Mrs. Favour Ayuba’s video went viral after the March 29, 2026 Unguwan Rukuba terror attack in Jos, Plateau State, in which no fewer than 30 Christians were shot dead.
In the video, she was seen sitting and tightly hugging her dying son as he bled from gunshot wounds inflicted by the attackers.
She also attended the town hall meeting to narrate her experience.
Ayuba said she had sent her 14-year-old son, Titus, on an errand only for him to be brought back bleeding from bullet wounds. Contrary to social media reports, Titus was not her only child, as she has five other children.
She came to the meeting demanding justice for her son and others killed in the massacre.
Army Probes Possible Insider Involvement
In a startling revelation during the meeting, Brig. Gen. Muhammad Sule, Chief of Staff to the General Officer Commanding (GOC), 3 Division of the Nigerian Army in Jos, spoke on the Rukuba killings and said the precision with which the attack was carried out raised suspicions.
“The accuracy of the shooting indicates that there could be the involvement of professional marksmen in that attack,” he said.
“In every profession there are bad eggs and we in the military are not an exception,” he added.
“We are very worried about the execution of that attack and we have launched an investigation into it with the aim of finding out if any of our men were involved. And I can assure you that if we do find any, the law will take its course,” he said.
Fulani Participants Also Seek Justice
Some Fulani participants at the meeting also spoke of losses suffered by their communities.
Hajia Mariam Shitu, a Fulani woman from Bassa County in Plateau State, told the gathering that her three adult children were killed in gruesome circumstances on separate occasions within a five-year period.
She did not state who she suspected of carrying out the killings, but appealed for assistance, saying she was struggling to raise her grandchildren without her husband.
Fulani and Muslim leaders who attended the meeting said their communities had also suffered attacks from indigenous armed groups and accused both state governments and the Federal Government of discrimination against them.
Ethnic Christians Vs Each Other
There were also complaints of violence involving ethnic Christian groups against other Christian ethnic communities.
Chief Vincent Terkura, 91, from Mbanga village in Wukari County of Taraba State, Middle Belt, said his ancestors founded the community where he was born and raised before leaving for school and later employment.
Taraba state has a majority Jukun population who are largely Christians.
According to him, he contested and won local parliamentary elections in 1979 and 1992.
“Today, our Jukun neighbours have kicked us out of our lands, saying that we should return to Benue State, accusing us of being settlers,” he lamented.
Cleric Challenges Muslim Leaders
Isa El-Buba, founder and president of Evangelical Bible Outreach Ministries International, also addressed the gathering.
He accused Muslim leaders in Northern Nigeria of not doing enough to stop extremists whom he described as “bad Muslims” from carrying out killings in the name of Allah across the Middle Belt.
“If someone is chanting ‘Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!’ while beheading a Christian and you say he is a bad Muslim and that such people are in the minority,” he said, “why don’t we hear the loud voices of the majority of good Muslims denouncing evil and helping take those ‘bad’ Muslims to justice?”
Luka Binniyat writes for TruthNigeria from Kaduna.
