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Nigeria’s internationally recognised human rights research organisation, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (InterSociety), has accused the BBC-Africa Global Disinformation Unit of attempting to undermine its research and sanitise the ongoing mass persecution of Christians in Nigeria.

The BBC had written to InterSociety — through Olaronke Alo and Peter Mwai — requesting clarification on how the organisation arrived at its headline figures of 125,009 Christian deaths and 19,100 churches destroyed across Nigeria since 2009.

InterSociety, in a formally transmitted reply signed by its Founder, criminologist and rights researcher, Emeka Umeagbalasi, responded in very direct language.

“We hope… your calling us from ‘Global Disinformation Unit of your British Broadcasting Corporation-Africa (BBC-Africa)’ was grounded in professionalism and independence and not politically motivated or influenced by Nigerian Government?”

According to InterSociety, intelligence shared with credible international actors shows that high-level political influence has been deployed to “change the global narrative” and suppress acknowledgement of Christian genocide in Nigeria.

“…sustained efforts by Nigerian Government have been ongoing to politically influence some church organizations in Nigeria including PFN, Catholic Mission, CAN… to shift their grounds to the effect that ‘there are no Christian Genocide in Nigeria.’”

BBC Asked to Question the Nigerian Government’s Own Statistics

InterSociety turned the BBC’s question back to Abuja, pointing to the Nigerian Government’s National Bureau of Statistics which recently released scandalously high figures of insecurity deaths.

“Your BBC team should therefore ask the Nigerian Government how it arrived at such ‘America Wonder Statistics’ of 614,373 citizens killed in one year.”

InterSociety: We Are Not Government, Not Politicians, Not Purchasable

The organisation emphasised that it is not a “media activist group” but a research-based human rights and rule of law institution established in 2008.

“Our in-kind resources are at all times beyond what money or political or sectional interests can buy or influence.”

InterSociety said its data methodology is anchored on criminology, victimology and natural scientific incident reconstruction techniques.

“This Is Not Herders–Farmers Conflict. It Is Coordinated Jihadist Violence”

Rejecting BBC’s inference that killings were generally labelled “herder-farmer clashes”, InterSociety stated that:

“This is very deceitful and highly misleading… The attacks are well coordinated and systematically targeted at defenceless Christians, their churches, homes and farmlands.”

The organisation detailed the progressive expansion of jihadist Fulani militant forest encampments in Southern Nigeria — from near-zero in 2015 to 1,000 occupation sites as at September 2025.

State Actor Complicity Alleged

InterSociety accused sections of Nigeria’s military and security establishment of clear religious bias.
“…security forces are structurally defective, grossly lopsided… and their operations are nothing short of a state of terror.”

It described the relationship between certain state actors and Fulani jihadist cells as a replica of the Sudan–Janjaweed model.

Breakdown of the 125,000 Christian Deaths

InterSociety says the BBC intentionally excluded the 60,000 moderate Muslim victims identified in the report.

“We must observe that you deliberately omitted adding ‘60,000 moderate Muslim deaths’…”

According to InterSociety research summaries:

1. 52,250 Christian deaths from July 2009 – April 2023

2. 24,000 Christian deaths from April 2023 – October 2025

3. 18,000 Christians permanently disappeared during Boko Haram era

4. 30,000 Christian deaths under military/state actor & jihadist killings in Eastern Nigeria

“GRAND TOTAL = 125,000 defenseless Christian deaths since 2009.”

19,100 Churches Downed — Conservative Figure

InterSociety referenced Open Doors, Vatican-linked research, Release International, local CAN reports and multiple Catholic diocesan confirmations.
“…the number was also likely to have been under-quoted.”

It said tens of thousands of parish-level and outstation-level structures were destroyed in Benue, Plateau, Southern Kaduna, Taraba, Adamawa, Borno and across Eastern Nigeria by either jihadist actors or security forces.

“We Are Not IPOB”

Responding to a BBC question implying affiliation with IPOB, InterSociety said:

“Let it be BOLDLY STATED that Intersociety is not affiliated to or an affiliate of IPOB and can never be.”

“By that question of yours, the BBC… is attempting to mass-falsely label the entire Igbo World.”

It accused the Nigerian Army of frequently using false-labelling tactics to discredit rights groups.

Final Position

The signed response was dated:
Enugu — Sunday, November 2, 2025.

The BBC requested reply before 12:00pm on Monday, November 3, 2025. InterSociety complied.

As of press time, BBC-Africa’s next move will determine whether this matter escalates into an international press freedom litigation reference point, or becomes another example of allegations of censorship-by-soft-power.

For now, InterSociety insists: “Natural sources of data are difficult to dispute — no matter how hard critics try to discredit them.”

The Street Reporters Newspaper

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