Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo in Enugu

The Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) has been urged to stop using the prism of religion to form its position on every national issue, including the current security situation that has claimed thousands of lives in many part of Nigeria.

The warning was handed down to them by the All Progressives Congress (APC) Digital Group (ADG), a political think-tank in the ruling party, saying that it’s appalling that JNI was rationalising the atrocities of Muslim extremists wreaking havoc across the nation.

In a statement issued yesterday by the group, the Director-General of ADG, Ikeagwuonwu Chinedu Klinsmann, said that it was appalling that JNI has chosen to engage in whitewashing targeted religious violence against Nigerian Christians.

He said that such denials smacked of “cowardly betrayal of truth and justice,” adding that it would be difficult for Nigeria to succeed in the fight against terrorism if JNI keeps defending the heinous activities of Muslim extremists.

The Jama’atu Nasril Islam had in its reaction to the threat by the United States

President, Donald Trump, to take military action against terrorists in Nigeria, dismissed his claim of Christian genocide in the country. 

The Muslim organisation linked the killings to “criminalities” and “poverty-driven clashes” thereby absolving the Muslim extremists of religious-motivated crimes.

But Klinsmann insisted that JNI was being dishonest in trying to cover the role of Muslim extremists in the systematic extermination of Christians across Nigeria.

He described JNI’s rejection of genocide and its assertion that violence affects all faiths equally and stems from non-religious factors, as “a blatant lie that shields jihadists and insults the graves of thousands of innocent Christians.”

He said: “This is not random banditry; it is a deliberate campaign of religious cleansing by groups like Boko Haram, ISWAP, and Fulani militias, who target churches, priests, and Christian communities with impunity.

“JNI’s refusal to acknowledge this– claiming the US genocide classification is ‘exaggerated’-exposes their complicity in allowing the blood of our brothers and sisters to cry out unanswered.”

The APC Digital Group DG stated that the JNI and other groups and individuals in its mould “must stop hiding behind excuses of climate change or economic woes when the evidence screams of faith-based hatred.”

He called on JNI “to retract their denials, condemn these extremists unequivocally, and join in demanding justice. Nigerians of all faiths deserve peace, but truth must precede it.”

Using documented incidents and accompanying body counts, Klinsmann challenged JNI to death tolls and highlighted irrefutable evidence of this targeted extermination,

“Beginning with the staggering toll documented by Genocide Watch: Since 2000, at least 62,000 Nigerian Christians have been murdered by Islamist jihadists, including Boko Haram and its splinter ISWAP, with over 18,000 churches razed to the ground,” he said.

Nonetheless, Klinsmann acknowledged that “moderate Muslims have also suffered, with 34,000 killed in the same onslaught, underscoring the jihadists’ broader war on non-conformists.

“But Christians remain the primary targets in a pattern that meets the UN Genocide Convention’s criteria for intentional destruction of a group.”

Klinsmann noted that “violence against clergy is particularly egregious, with Catholic priests and seminarians systematically hunted,” adding that since 2009, “over 50 Catholic priests have been killed or kidnapped.”

According to him, the figure represented a 300 percent surge in attacks on clergy, driven by Islamist extremists who view Christian leaders as symbols to eradicate.

On blasphemy accusations, Klinsmann said that JNI has never condemned the attendant mob lynching, including the 1996 beheading of Gideon Akaluka, an Igbo Christian trader in Kano, paraded and decapitated by a Muslim mob for allegedly desecrating the Quran.

“More recently, in 2022, Deborah Samuel Yakubu, a 22-year-old Christian student in Sokoto, was stoned, beaten, and burned alive by fellow students for sharing a WhatsApp message deemed blasphemous, sparking international outrage that JNI dismissed as overblown.”

Klinsmann said that the federal authorities should rise up to its responsibilities of securing life and properties, and not allow religious extremists and their support groups to continue shedding innocent blood.

“The Nigerian Government must act decisively, or this silent slaughter will consume us all,” Klinsmann said.

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