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The Global Disinformation Unit of the BBC-Africa, Led By Oraronke Alo And Peter Mwai, had recently written to the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (InterSociety), seeking clarifications over its investigative research on killings in Nigeria. Find below the full text of the questions marked (Theirs) and the response of the Founder of InterSociety, marked (Ours or Response):

STATEMENT OF FACT BY INTERSOCIETY BOSS IN RESPONSE TO FACT-CHECK ENQUIRIES BY BBC-AFRICA’S GLOBAL DISINFORMATION UNIT LED BY ORARONKE ALO AND PETER MWAI

THEIRS: Emeka Umeagbalasi, Founder, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law(InterSociety),Nigeria.

Dear Emeka Umeagbalasi,

THEIRS: As we have discussed, I am working on a story about the recent surge in claims about mass killings of Christians in Nigeria, which will be published across BBC platforms. Inter Society’s research has been referenced during the recent debate in the United States surrounding claims of Christian persecution in Nigeria.  https://tinyurl.com/4vn8xdc7

We’d like further clarification on your data.  The report claims that 125,009 Christians have been killed in targeted attacks by jihadists and terror groups since 2009 and 19,000 churches destroyed. We have reviewed the report, and we have not seen clear well-sourced evidence of how you reached these figures. If they are available, can you direct us to an itemised list of attacks to verify them? 

OURS: INTRODUCTION AND STRONG ADVICE: We hope, as you recently disclosed to us that your calling us from “Global DisinformationUnit of your British Broadcasting Corporation-Africa (BBC-Africa)” was grounded in professionalism and independence and not politically motivated or influenced by Nigerian Government? We asked because we have locally and internationally been briefed through shared intelligence that sustained efforts by Nigerian Government have been ongoing to politically influence some church organizations in Nigeria including PFN, Catholic Mission, CAN and influential preachers and leaders to shift their grounds to the effect that “there are no Christian Genocide in Nigeria”. According to the shared intelligence, such politically motivated desperate efforts were rapidly extended in the past weeks through “lobbying” and pressures to some influential voices in Vatican City, United States, European Union, FOX News, CBN News, etc. From the shared intelligence, among those that successfully resisted or withstood such political pressure or influence are US independent researcher and former Mayor of Blanco in Texas, Mr. Mike Arnold and two members of his respected team who had during their public outing on Oct 14, 2025 in Abuja, Nigeria, shocked the Nigerian Government and international watchers by sticking to their conscience and truth. Aside the above, your BBC team has never interviewed us on issues of religious violence or persecution in Nigeria or any part thereof since the Boko Haram Islamic Uprising of July 2009.

QUESTION BBC MUST PUSH BACK TO NIGERIAN GOVT: Nigerian Government’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) had on Dec 17, 2024, released an “America Wonder Statistics”, saying “between May 2023 and April 2024, a period of one year: “614,373 citizens died in Nigeria from insecurity”. See the links below: (https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/data-shows-614-937-victims-killed-in-nigeria-from-insecurity-in-1-year/3429502, https://share.google/Ze1ELRxf52UmMvThO).

Your BBC team should therefore ask the Nigerian Government how it arrived at such “America wonder statistics”
UNDERSTANDING WHO WE ARE: We are not a media organization, but a research-based human rights, rule of law, democracy, security and safety advocacy organization since July 2008 when Intersociety was founded. Our team leaders are independent and self-made and sustained professionals and expert-volunteers grounded in the fields of Criminology and Security Studies, Peace Studies and Conflict Resolution, Law, Journalism, teaching profession; and among them are business persons, etc. As expert-volunteers, we pulled our respective expertise together and freely and selflessly deployed them for the betterment of the Society or Humanity. Our in-kind resources are at all times beyond what money or political or sectional or separatist interests can buy or influence; which explains why we have remained focused and unpurchaseable or uncompromised since 2008; bearing in mind that Nigerian public office is deeply rooted in corruption and corrupt practices; to the extent that there are no fewer than 800-1000 fake and Government-affiliated NGOs causing havoc to fight for the respect and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms especially Religious Freedom or Freedom of Worship or Belief. Government of Nigeria, especially the immediate past and the incumbent are also responsible for destruction of not less than 70% of credible and independent NGOs and few that refused to be infiltrated and destroyed are governmentally threatened and labelled or called all sorts of unprintable names such as Boko Haram affiliate (. i.e. Amnesty International) if operating in the North-East and North-West, Militia-affiliate if operating in the Middle-Belt or North-Central and IPOB-affiliate (. i.e. Intersociety) if operating in South-East and South-South.

HOW WE BUILD OUR DATA: Intersociety is grounded in data mining or collection, analysis and management using natural and simple scientific methods. One of our strongest data collection, analysis and management strategies, also one of the oldest natural methods in the world is: time, location and space of an incident or crime scene. In a premeditated fatal incident, for instance, we rely on: who were those killed? Who killed them? Where were they killed? When were they killed? Why were they killed? How many of them were killed or injured or abducted and taken to where and by who? And was there justice accountability for the victims and the perpetrators using criminology, victimology and penology? These questions are also used when determining defenceless properties attacked by armed state actors and armed non-state actors. In social media generated pictures and videos analysis and management, these elements must textually or visually be included inside them or explained at source to be acceptable in our data analysis.

Our decision to use or deploy simple scientific methods and plain language communications are for easy reading and understanding by target audiences (farmers, artisans, traders, community-victims, community leaders, academics, policy makers, politicians, security chiefs and personnel, professional bodies, diplomats, incident victims and witnesses, etc.). As a leading rights advocacy organization since 2008, our data are generated using primary and secondary sources. Primary Sources include direct, survivors and eyewitnesses’ accounts and in Secondly Sources, we use accounts from other credible and verifiable sources including local and international media organizations, victim-communities, research and investigative groups (local and international), declassified and credible state actor accounts, internationally respected persons and diplomatic and intergovernmental accounts, etc.

WE ARE SECONDARY VICTIMS OF CRIME (RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION IN NIGERIA): According to the United Nations Declaration of Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Office (1985), “victims of crime are persons, who, individually or collectively, have suffered harm including physical or mental injury, emotional suffering, economic loss or substantial impairment of their fundamental rights, through acts or omissions that are in violation of criminal laws operative within the Member-States of the United Nations, including those laws prohibiting the abuse of power…(secondary victims) the victims include, where necessary, the immediate family or defendants of the direct victims and persons who have suffered harm in intervening to assist people is distress or to prevent victimization”.

…ALSO PROTECTED BY UN DECLARATION ON RIGHTS OF HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS OF 1998

OUR SCOPE COVERS STATE ACTOR AND NON-STATE ACTOR INVOLVEMENT ACROSS NIGERIA: Unlike several other organizations that have concentrated their advocacy findings on “Christian Genocide in Northern Nigeria” especially in Benue, Southern Kaduna, Plateau, Borno, Taraba and Adamawa and have their reports restricted to “armed non-state actor involvement”, the scope of Intersociety’s reports through tracking and monitoring since 2010; is much larger, covering attacks on defenceless Christians and their sacred places of worship and learning across Nigeria’s North-West, North-Central, North-East, South-West, South-East and South-South Regions or Zones. Through close monitoring of patterns and trends of the jihadist activities of the Jihadist Fulani Militants and allied others, in collusion with immediate past and incumbent Governments of Nigeria, we have been able to track and monitor the southward movements and activities of the Fulani Jihadists especially since 2016, during which not less than 48 rural Igbo Christians of Enugu State were gruesomely murdered in their sleep by Jihadist Fulani Militants, masquerading as “Fulani Herdsmen”. The massacre took place in April 2016 in Nimbo part of Uzo-Uwani in Enugu State; likewise, a handful of others between July and Dec 2015.

It must also be noted that until secret deployment of Jihadist Fulani Militants, widely believed to have been aided by Nigerian Security Forces using late night movements; occupation of Igbo Land and South-South bushes and forests by Jihadist Fulani Militants was a near-zero. By Jan 2015, there was no “Jihadist Fulani forest occupation in the Region”; except “Hausa Quarters” sparsely located in places like “Kara in Ogbaru”, “Ama Hausa” in Owerri, “Sokoto Road” in Onitsha, etc. By 2018, “Jihadist Fulani occupation in Igbo Land forests and bushes began to spring up, hitting about 139 in August 2019 and 400 by 2020, to more than 700 by end of 2024. As of Sept 2025, there were estimated 1000 forest and bush locations occupied by Jihadist Fulani Militants and their allies in the South-South and the South-East; engaging in “secret and open killings” targeted at Eastern Christian travellers and farmers, leading to estimated 60% casualties, according to independent sources, arising from roadway, bush-way and forest-way ambushes and abductions (rarely reported in the media except via individual survivors social clusters’ accounts) including locations within and outside the East and their boundary States or communities (i.e. Kogi, Benue and Ondo). Open killings (majorly reported in the media), on the other hand, constitute the remaining 40% of all the casualty figures. Similar Jihadist activities including invasion and occupation of forests and bushes are also enveloping the Christian parts of the South-West and Yoruba parts of Kogi and Kwara where several Muslim areas are also not spared.

Part of our Advocacy Scope and Coverage is beaming our advocacy searchlight on the hierarchy including rank and file and command structures’ composition and activities of the country’s security forces especially the armed forces regarding their law enforcements and operations in the East, Southern Kaduna, Plateau, Benue, Taraba, Borno, Adamawa, Niger, Kogi, Nasarawa and so on. Apart from the security forces severally and widely being accused of gross partisanship and discriminatory operations in those areas including aligning with Fulani Jihadists by going after members of the attacked communities; their operations in the South-East and the South-South are also found to be “nothing short of a state of terror” especially against the indigenous Trado-Judeo-Christian citizens of such areas and their defenceless properties. Further studies into the patterns and trends of Nigeria’s security forces law enforcements and operations in the East clearly indicated that the drafted security forces especially the military are structurally defective, grossly lopsided or imbalanced and ethno-religiously threatening the Eastern Trado-Judeo-Christian population.

For instance, apart from the four top federal security forces formations in Imo State (State Police Command, 34 Army Brigade, Owerri, 211 Air Force Base, Owerri, and Naval Base in Oguta) being headed by Northern Muslims, in a State with more than 95% Christian population; it was further discovered that Commissioner of Police in Abia State (Danladi Isah), Commander of 14 Army Brigade in Ohafia, Abia State (Brig Gen Hassan Bello) and Commander of Naval School of Finance in Owerre-Nta, Abia State (Commodore BU Quadri) are headed by Northern Muslims; likewise the Commander of Onitsha Nigerian Army 302 Artillery Regiment in Anambra State (Col Adamu Muhammad). These are just to mention but a few, in States with more than 95% Christian population respectively.

Christian Persecution (“Christian Genocide”) in Nigeria especially in the hands of the country’s armed state actors and their political enablers is therefore found to be driven by the trio of structural violence, cultural violence and physical violence. Structural Violence involves exclusion, discrimination and ethno-religious profiling of the citizens on the grounds of their religion and ethnicity, followed by Cultural Violence such as false labelling, mass criminalization, mass and religious stigmatization, hearsay conclusions and prosecutorial vindictiveness; leading to Physical Violence including systematic and coordinated targeting of members of a particular religious and ethnic grouping for egregious attacks including false-labelling, secretly and openly killing, abducting, torturing, maiming, incarcerating and disappearing them without traces or criminally interring their dead body persons in a way unknown to written law in secret places and outside official records or knowledge of their families.

Victims of the above, in the eyes of the international laws and norms including the International Freedom of Religion or Worship or Belief are hereby safely and correctly pronounced as Victims of the State Actor Religious Persecution (Christian Persecution), having been falsely labelled or secretly or openly killed and lethally maimed or abducted and tortured or incarcerated under prosecutorial vindictiveness or abducted and disappeared without traces, all on the grounds of their religious or ethnic identities. The combined effects of the above also have the full backing of Section 10 of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution (forbids adoption by Nigerian Government of any religion as “a State Religion”).

They are further guaranteed by Section 38 of the same Constitution which guarantees Nigeria’s citizens’ Rights to Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion as well as their coordinate Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 (acceded to by Nigeria in 1961), Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of 1976 (signed and ratified by Nigeria in 1993) and Article 8 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights of 1981 (signed, ratified and domesticated by Nigeria in 1983). Nigeria is also a State Party to the trio of the Geneva Conventions (Humanitarian Law Treaty) of 1949 and their Protocols of 1977, the International Criminal Court (Rome Statute) of 1998 and the Genocide Convention of 1948. It is therefore upon all of the above that our informed decision to identify and include key religious related attacks by the drafted security forces in Eastern Nigeria especially the South-East, since August 2015 are unquestionably grounded.

LIKE SUDAN GOVT AND ITS JANJAWEED, LIKE NIGERIAN GOVT AND ITS FULANI JIHADISTS: The Sudanese Government under the ousted dictator, Gen Omar Hassan el-Bashir (1989-2019) was clandestinely responsible for arming and colluding with the Janjaweed (camel herders) terror militias, starting from late 80s, during which there was free and unchecked collusion between the Islamist Government and leaders of the Janjaweed, to the extent of using the terror militias to massacre tens of thousands of black Darfurians and almost obliterate Christian communities of Sudanese origin. The then Sudanese Government and the Janjaweed militias’ collusion became so pronounced that key leaders of the Islamic terror militias were given key ministerial positions in the Sudanese Government including the appointment of Ahmad Muhammed Harun as Minster of State for Interior and Ali Kushayb for another, among others. There was also free flow and influx of licit and illicit small arms and light weapons between the Sudanese Government and the Janjaweed terror militias. It is not only that all these led to the ICC’s indictment of then President el-Bashir in 2005, but also the dreaded Ali Kushayb who was arrested by the ICC for crimes against humanity and war crimes particularly between 2003 and 2004 in Darfur was convicted on Oct 5, 2025 and jailed for more than 20 years. The Sudanese Janjaweed had also metamorphosed into “the Rapid Support Forces” headed by Gen Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, responsible for deaths of tens of thousands of defenceless civilians in Sudan since 2021. All the above is to say that the romance between Governments of Nigeria since June 2015 till date and Fulani Herdsmen (cattle herders) and their Jihadist Fulani Militants is a replica of that of Sudan.

ON DEATH OF 125,009 CHRISTIANS, 60,000 MUSLIMS AND DOWINING OF 19,100 CHURCHES:
We must observe that you deliberately omitted adding “60,000 moderate Muslim deaths” in your mailed question above; likely to have done with deliberate intent to discredit our well-founded reports dating back to yesteryears. Be further informed that the report you relied upon and used in sending to us your mailed questions was originally issued on August 10, 2025, after which it was massively updated on Sept 28, 2025 and divided into two parts. Please their links below: 1. https://intersociety-ng.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Nigeria-Digitally-And-Physically-Headquartering-22-Islamic-Terror-Groups-Across-Africa-Seeking-To-Obliterate-Christianity.pdf, 2. https://intersociety-ng.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Nigeria-How-Islamic-Jihadists-Attacked-And-Dismantled-Estimated-1200-Churches-Yearly.pdf

With the above having been said, let it be clearly explained that Intersociety started tracking and monitoring egregious, systematic, coordinated and state-enabled attacks against Christians and nonviolent Muslims across Nigeria since 2010, a period of more than fifteen years. Our tracking and monitoring are done through primary (direct observation where necessary and eyewitnesses and survivors’ accounts) and secondary (researchers and other third party accounts) sources which have been relied upon to establish the 125, 000 Christian death and 60,000 defenseless Muslim death figures and downing of the estimated 19,100 churches across Nigeria over a period of more than fifteen years or since 2010. Natural sources of collection data are very difficult to be disputed no matter how hard critics try to dispute or discredit them.

THEIRS: You published a report in 2023 that found the number of Christian deaths was just over 50,000. How do you account for the extra 50,000-plus Christian killings between 2023 and 2025 and what are your sources for that increase?  

RESPONSE: In the updated version of our Report, dated Sept 28, 2025, the above issue you raised was adequately taken care of. One of the hallmarks of social research reports is periodic updates especially when new findings are made or new facts gathered. Fresh discoveries were made in the course of our further investigations carried out across Nigeria. For instance, we had in June 2024 commenced a detailed and extensive investigation into roles played by armed state actor and armed non-state generators and enablers of insecurity and other unsafe conditions in Eastern Nigeria particularly in the States of Imo, Ebonyi, Abia, Anambra, Enugu, Rivers, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Bayelsa and Edo. Edo State was captured in the areas of Jihadist Herdsmen activities and rabid corruption and corrupt practices by military and police personnel deployed in different parts of the State.

The Special Report on Eastern Nigeria, dubbed “Ocean of Innocent Blood Flowing in the East”, involved exposing armed state actor conduct-atrocities in the line of their duties in Eastern Nigeria and similar atrocities by armed non-state actors. The Report also covered a period of nine years and four months or August 2015 to Dec 2024; during which fresh and shocking discoveries were made including killing of not less than 46,800 defenceless and unarmed citizens. As a matter of fact, the Report was summed up as follows: “A Catalogue Of How Officers And Personnel Of The Armed Forces (Army, Air Force And Navy), The Police And The DSS (Secret Police), Joined By The Paramilitaries And The Killer-Vigilantes Used “IPOB/ESN/BIAFRA Terrorism” As A Pretext To Secretly Massacre 22,500 Unarmed Civilians And Openly Killed Others 9,800 Others-Totalling 32,300 In The Past Nine Years And Four Months (August 2015-Dec 2024)

In The Ongoing Military Siege And Terror In Eastern Nigeria; During Which Government-Linked And Non-Government-Linked Armed Non-State Actors Killed 14,500 Other Civilians-Totalling 46,800 In All”. The number of “battle field combatants’ death toll” recorded was about 4,500 involving armed fighting and criminal parties and estimated 2000 members of the drafted security forces who were found to have hatefully turned their weapons against defenceless Trado-Judeo-Christian citizens on the grounds of their ethnicity and religion. Link to the Special Report is here: https://intersociety-ng.org/wp content/uploads/2024/12/NIGERIA-OCEAN-OF-INNOCENT-BLOOD-FLOWING-IN-THE-EAST-oringinal_11zon.pdf. See below the summary of how we came about the estimated 125,000 Christian deaths and 60,000 defenceless Muslim deaths in sixteen years or since July 2009.

EXPLAINING THE 125,000 CHRISTIAN DEATHS AND 60,000 MUSLIM DEATHS SINCE 2009:The estimated 125,000 Christians killed by Islamic Jihadists and ethno-religiously radicalized security forces in sixteen years were arrived at by establishing that estimated 52,250 Christian deaths occurred between from July 2009 and April 2023 and 30,000 moderate Muslim deaths; in addition to estimated deaths of 24, 000 covering: 8,222 Christian deaths recorded across Nigeria from Jan to Dec 2023, 6,500 recorded in 2024 and 7000 recorded in ten months of 2025 or Jan to Oct 2025.

There are also ‘dark figures of about 2,100-2,300 deaths’ representing civilian deaths arising from armed non-state actor and armed state actor captivity killings, from those abducted and taken into custody or captivity, on the ratio of out of every 100 Christians abducted, ten or 10% are not likely to come back alive. For instance, out of more than 1000 Christians held hostage by Jihadists Kaduna’s Rijana Forest Camps since Dec 2024, more than 120 have been killed in captivity. The figures above are also in addition to freshly discovered 30,000 Christian deaths from state actor and non-state actor massacre in the past nine years and four months in Eastern Nigeria. Among them were estimated thousands (likely to be in the neighborhood of no fewer than 5000) abducted from the East by military, police crack squads and secret police, face-bagged and moved in the dead of the night to secret places like the Kainji and the WAWA military cantonments in Niger State (Nigeria’s largest land State), the Nigerian Army Alpha Commando Base, along Suleja-Bida Road in Niger State, the Old and the New Keffi Prisons in Nasarawa State, the Abacha Barracks in Abuja, the Gusau Maximum Security Prisons in Zamfara State, the Kuje Maximum Security Prisons in Abuja and so on-where they are dumped uninvestigated and untried and likely to have been killed in custody between August 2015 and Nov 2020.

There are also other defenseless Trado-Judeo-Christian Easterners abducted by Jihadist Fulani Militants and allied others from the East and disappeared who are also likely to have been killed in captivity especially since April 2021. Added to the list were circumstantially concluded death of estimated 18,000 Christians abducted and permanently disappeared during Boko Haram Islamic Insurgency of July 2009 to Dec 2014 including estimated 3000 Igbo-Christians resident in different parts of Northern Nigeria as at the time of their abduction and disappearance in places like Jos, Suleja, Katsina, Gusau, Birnin Kebbi, Minna, Dutse, Jalingo, Mubi, Kano, Kaduna, Damaturu, Maiduguri, Bauchi, Gombe, etc.

18, 000 ABDUCTED AND DISAPPEARED DEFENSELESS CHRISTIANS DURING BOKO HARAM: Tens of thousands of Nigerians, many of whom defenseless Christians were targeted, abducted and never returned in the hands of Boko Harm Insurgents which started their Jihadist campaigns with a spike in July 2009 and majorly targeted Christians, their churches and schools, during which Igbo-Christians residing in different parts of Northern Nigeria were one of their earliest targets. While the exact number of those openly killed and others abducted and disappeared was tasking and challenging to establish, however, the International Red Cross had in Dec 2019, released a Report, saying that less than 22,000 Nigerians were missing since Boko Haram crisis began in 2009. See the link below: https://share.google/a0OLXo3rX4X1aryHt. Going by independent estimates, no fewer than 30,000 citizens including estimated 3000 Igbo-Christians in the North were believed to have been abducted and disappeared without traces between July 2009 and Dec 2014 or thereafter, out of which estimated 18,000 belonged to members of the Christian Faith and affiliated others.

BRAKDOWN OF 125,000 CHRISTIAN DEATH FIGURES:
Block data of the Islamic Jihadists and radical security forces’ killings targeted at defenseless Christians across Nigeria from July 2009 to April 2023=52,250 Christian deaths.

Deaths arising from armed state actor (ethno-religiously radicalized security forces) and armed non-state actor (Jihadist Fulani Militants and allied others) ethno-religious killings targeted at defenseless Christians and their sacred places of worship and learning across Nigeria from April 2023 to Oct 2025=24,000 Christian deaths including 2,100-2,300 representing deaths arising from those killed in captivity, on ratio of about ten Christian deaths for every 100 Christian abductees.
Deaths arising from permanently disappearance of Christians during Boko Haram Islamic Uprising of July 2009 to Dec 2014 or thereafter including estimated 3000 Igbo-Christians residing in Northern Nigeria=18,000 Christian deaths.

Ethno-religiously related killings by drafted security forces especially the military personnel and their officers in Eastern Nigeria, from August 30, 2015 to Oct 2025 (plus estimates covering Jan-Oct 2025) including estimated 5000 permanently disappeared defenseless Trado-Judeo-Christian citizens; estimated 10,300 others openly and secretly killed by the military; estimated 6,500 others openly and secretly killed by the state-protected Jihadist Fulani Militants and allied others; estimated more than 500 others killed by security forces and Jihadists across the East in the past ten months of Jan-Oct 2025; estimated 7,700 others ethno-religiously killed by police crack squads and secret police including estimated 2,500 permanently disappeared others totaling 30,000 Trado-Judeo-Christian deaths in the past ten years of August 2015 to Oct 2025.

GRAND TOTAL=125,000 DEFENSELESS CHRISTIAN DEATHS SINCE 2009 

THEIRS: You pointed us to the table of collected statistics that Inter Society published covering attacks on Christians and churches between January-August 2025. Does such a table exist for the previous years of your research?

RESPONSE: Our answer to this question of yours is not only YES but also we have several tables of statistics backing up our reports over the years. Our reports have also been grounded in references or built on primary and secondary sources. In the use of eyewitnesses’ accounts as part of our primary sources, many of them preferred not to have their names mentioned for security reasons or fear of victimization and we are under obligation to respect such decisions by protecting their identities. It is also almost impossible to reproduce all our reports and their references dating back to 2010, a period of more than fifteen years. Our easy method is pick their summary statistics and add them to our fresh discoveries or findings to make up our new reports.

THEIRS: We analysed all the sources cited in that report (Jan-Aug 2025) and found that you reported that media reports identified the religion of the victims, but 35 of those media sources did not. For example, Inter Society quoted an Al Jazeera report of an attack in the north-east. It says that “according to Al Jazeera news online of January 13, 2025, not less than 40 farmers mainly Christians were abducted by Boko Haram in Damboa part of Borno State.” But that report did not mention the victims’ religious identity. How did you conclude the victims of an attack were mainly Christians? 

RESPONSE: For clarity, our reports are not solely built on media reports. Reports generated from the media are subjected to further analysis, to identify religious background of group or individual victims. Media reports are majorly divided into two by us: “media reports with Christian religious background” and “media reports with general background”. “Christian media reports” include reports from Christian Post, Christian Daily’s International Morning Star News, Truth-Nigeria, Release International and several international Catholic media outfits such as Catholic World Report, ACI, ACIA-AFRICA, EWTN, CRUZ, etc.

These Christian religious media outfits also have their reporters trained and deployed across Nigeria and armed with networks on tracking the affected Christian areas and their members who are the victims. For “general media reports”, they are majorly under state censorship in Nigeria, threatened and forbidden from including religious identities of the victims and their communities in their reports and forced to promote the Nigerian Government’s romanticized slogan of “herders-farmers’ clashes”; also used by some foreign media organizations such as your BBC. Several field findings made by our organization do not factually support such romanticized slogan of the Nigerian Government officially imposed since the midyear of 2015. We are grounded in the knowledge and identification and location of most of the Northern areas of the country with dominant indigenous Christian population.

For instance, there are dominant Christian areas in the North such as Southern Borno including Damboa, Askira Uba, Chibok, Biu and Gwoza. In Kano, indigenous Christian areas are found in Rogo, Sumalia, Bebeji, Shanono, Doguwa. In Katsina, indigenous Christian areas are found in Malumfashi, Kafur, Bakori, Musawa, Bakori, Matazu. In Kaduna, indigenous Christian areas involving 64 ethnic nationalities are found in Kachia, Kagarko, Jaba, Jema’a, Zango-Kataf, Kauru, Kaura, Sanga, Kajuru, Chikun, Lere and South Kaduna LGA. Indigenous Christians are also found in large numbers in Southern Kebbi, Southern Bauchi, Gombe, Adamawa and Paikoro, Shiroro, Munya and Rafi parts of Niger State, etc.

 Why do you characterise the Herder – Farmer conflict as primarily one driven by religion?

RESPONSE: This is very deceitful and highly misleading. Also from our gathered statistics arising from crime or incident scenes, they did not support or indicate such (“farmers-herders’ clashes”) and we are not under any obligation to adopt or use such in our reports. The attacks are well coordinated and systematically targeted at defenceless Christians, their churches, homes and farm lands; during which victim-communities also reportedly come under military attacks and labelled and treated as “aggressors or attackers”. They are also well organized attacks by invading Fulani Jihadists who, in many cases, are not close neighbours with victim-communities. Reprisal ratio of the victims is acutely disproportionate and usually met with war-grade responses from security forces and Jihadists including clampdowns on victim-communities and their leaders.

THEIRS: Aside from the statistical table for the 2025 data which lists some media reports, can you provide sources for the rest of the killings? The media reports do not account for the roughly 7,000 you mention. Are we correct to believe that the rest of the figures are based on data you have not published – such as eyewitness accounts, research from other organisations and groups etc – and your own estimates?

RESPONSE: It is not only that enough references were provided in the updated version of the referenced report, dated Sept 28, 2028, but also detailed others are contained in Our Table of Statistics attached to the report.

For clarity, the two links are below: (1) https://intersociety-ng.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Nigeria-Digitally-And-Physically-Headquartering-22-Islamic-Terror-Groups-Across-Africa-Seeking-To-Obliterate-Christianity.pdf, (2) https://intersociety-ng.org/table-of-statistics-on-killings-abductions-and-other-attacks-by-jihadists-in-nigeria-jan-july-2025/

Other than the above links, there are other statistics forming part of the report obtained from eyewitnesses and survivors’ accounts and a number of other references not included, for want of space or time limitations. We are not allowed to produce the said survivors or eyewitnesses’ accounts for security and safety concerns. In Kaduna State, for instance, the number of those Christians reflected in our report as having been killed by Jihadists or abducted were found to be below the estimated number especially the abducted-where it was later found that more than 1300 Christians have been abducted by Jihadist Fulani Militants, misleadingly called “Bandits” by Nigerian state actors; abducted between Dec 2024 and Oct 2025, during which not less than 600 others were killed, among them were estimated 120 defenseless Christians killed in captivity by Fulani Jihadists inside Southern Kaduna’s Kachia Rijana Forest Camps. Using data analysis, killings and abductions per geopolitical region or zone were also well represented in the report, which cut across the country’s six geopolitical regions or zones especially secret killings arising from abductions and captivity deaths in Christian dominated areas of the country. Areas like Sokoto, Zamfara and Katsina where Jihadist Islamists are killing fellow Muslims who are nonviolent and defenseless were not included in the report. 

THEIRS: What is your methodology for generating estimates for deaths as you have for different states in 2025? 

RESPONSE: This question of yours has sufficiently been answered above (HOW WE GENERATE AND ANALYSE OUR DATA). We majorly relied on secondary sources including media reports and reports by international research bodies like Open Doors, Release International, International Christian Concern, Equipping the Persecuted Christians and so on. These have formed part of the statistics gathered outside our areas of physical advocacy jurisdiction like Middle Belt, Southern Kaduna, Niger and Taraba States and the South-West and so on.

On the other hand, combination of primary and secondary sources is used in South-East and South-South that are closest to our physical advocacy jurisdiction. It is not only that we make use of primary and secondary sources in building our reports, we also have them subjected to data analysis using logic and critical thinking grounded in our knowledge of facts of the matter and incident scene environments, in addition to enormous networks and contacts at our disposal, built over the years. We also tap from our stockpiled statistics and previous reports in building our fresh reports.

THEIRS: For the number of churches Inter Society says have been destroyed, we understand you quoted Open Doors for 13,000 of these attacks from a 2015 study. But what reports, sources or data did you use to justify for the additional 6,100?  We didn’t see any explanation for how you reached this figure, please share if it is available.

RESPONSE: For clarity, see Page 65 of the Legal Brief: Genocide in Nigeria in a 312-Page Report by the Aid to the Church in Need, released at Vatican on Oct 21, 2025. The Mother Report was titled: “Religious Freedom in the World 2025”, with 1,248 pages. The Nigerian version of the Report is titled: “Genocide in Nigeria: The Implications for the International Community”, in which the Legal Opinion of the Report was prepared by Prof Joash Amupitan (SAN). In the Legal Opinion version of the Report, it is not only that the 13,000 burnt or destroyed or closed down churches was quoted, but other sources also quoted it, which was originally cited in the Anna Mulder and her Open Doors Report of 2015, covering the Boko Haram Insurgency period of July 2009 to Dec 2014. Prof Joash Amupitan (SAN) who was recently appointed Nigeria’s new National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman had tied his reference to respected Ewelina Ochab, a celebrated researcher and campaigner against persecution of Christians and Christian Genocide in Nigeria.

Further, if your BBC’s “Global Disinformation Unit”, is still unsatisfied, please see the following: According to Vanguard Newspaper of September 22, 2016, under Boko Haram terror insurgency of July 2009 and Dec 2015 particularly in the North-East, quoting the USA-based 21st Century Initiative and the Stefanus Foundation,” 13,000 churches were destroyed, 1,500 Christian schools attacked and destroyed and their 611 teachers killed”. The report further stated that “14.8m Nigerians were directly affected and not less than 2.2m IDPs generated and 2.15m others displaced”; during which 1.3m Christians were forced to flee their homes to avoid being hacked to death by Jihadists for being Christians.

According to Sahara-Reporters of June 3, 2020, the Leadership of the Ekklisiyar Yan’ Uwa or Church of the Brethren in Nigeria (EYN) disclosed that “Boko Haram Jihadist Insurgents killed 8,370 of its members between July 2009 and May 2020, a period of eleven years in the four North-East States of Borno, Adamawa, Yobe, Taraba”. The Church further stated that its “over 1.5m members were also threatened for being Christians, during which 700,000 were displaced, eight of its pastors killed, 53 of its 60 district church councils directly affected and 300 of its 586 branches (churches) either burned down or destroyed”. The church which spoke through its then President, Rev Joel Billi, also disclosed that “217 of the 276 abducted Chibok girls belonged to the church; adding that many of their church members were abducted and killed or disappeared; and their communities uprooted and threatened or forced into refugee camps in Cameroon”.

Additionally, not less than 2000 Boko Haram-related killings perpetrated by combined forces of Haram, ISWAP, Ansaru, Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and Jihadist Fulani Islamic Bandits are likely to have affected the referenced Church of Brethren in Nigeria or EYN from 2020 to this Oct of 2025; in addition to abduction of estimated 3000 others and their pastors numbering dozens.

According to Benue State Branch of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, “the Fulani Herdsmen incursions into the State has led to the destruction of over 500 churches in parts of the State”. The above was according to Vanguard Newspaper of March 14, 2018. Then State CAN Chairman, Rev Akpen Leva disclosed that most worshippers in the affected areas were also displaced, which dates back with pocketful incidents in 2011; with most taking place from 2011-2015-reaching a crescendo by 2018. Since then such attacks have recorded exponential increase resulting in the loss of hundreds, if not thousands of churches including hundreds of Catholic parishes and outstations. The above is to the extent that in May 2025, “14 Catholic Parishes were attacked and forced to be shut down under the Makurdi Diocese, during which more than 50 Christians including Catholic Parishioners were massacred by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen in fourteen days”. The above was according to Reverend Father Joseph Beba, Chairman of the Catholic Diocesan Priests Association of Nigeria, Makurdi Branch. See the link to the statement below, dated June 1, 2025: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2025/06/over-50-killed-15-churches-shut-as-catholic-priests-decry-herdsmen-attacks-in-makurdi-diocese/

The News Express Online of August 16, 2025 also reported how Catholic priests in Benue State expressed outrage over recent destruction and desecration of St Paul’s Parish, Aye-Twar (Agu Center) in Katsina-Ala Local Government Area of the State and occupation of 26 other outstations by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen. The respected online media outfit had quoted Chairman of the Nigerian Catholic Diocesan Priests Association, Katsina-Ala Branch, Rev Father Samuel Fila as stating that the unprovoked violent attack took place on Sunday, August 10, 2025, resulting in severe destruction of the Parish and its several facilities by the Jihadists. According to the Release International’s Report of July 10, 2024, “Terrorists in Nigeria who are targeting and burning churches have forced one leading denomination to shut down 70 of its congregations (churches) in Plateau State alone.

Continuing attacks in Mangu and Bokkos counties (local government areas) have forced churches to close and are preventing evangelistic outreach in Northeastern and North-central Nigeria, according to the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN)”. The Report quoted the country’s president of COCIN, Rev Amos Monzo as telling the Morning Star News that “all our church buildings in those communities were burned down by terrorists and Christians are presently living in camps outside their communities-and evangelization has been impeded in this part of the country”.

According to the Frontline Reporters of Sept 13, 2023, “over 200 churches were shut down in Birnin Gwari, Chikun and Kajuru parts of Kaduna in four years (2019-2023) and not less than 23 pastors killed following frequent attacks by armed Fulani Bandits. According to Kaduna State CAN Chairman, Rev Joseph Hayab, during a confidence-building meeting involving leaders of the State CAN (Christian Association of Nigeria) and then Commissioner of Police in the State (CP Musa Garba), “over 200 churches (estimated 500 or more put together) in some parts of the State have been shut down, with Baptist Church having 115 shut down in Birnin Gwari to Chikun and Kajuru, to the extent that the churches are no longer there. When you go to many churches now, you will see many pastors who come from churches that have been shut down because they cannot continue, that is the kind of situation we are facing. ECWA Church can tell you hundreds of their churches lost across the State; likewise, Assemblies of God, the Catholic Church and many other churches”.

According to a report by the Premier Christian News, dated Wednesday, October 8, 2014, “185 parishes or churches belonging to Catholic Mission in Nigeria were set ablaze and 200,000 of their members or parishioners forced to flee their homes in two months of August and September 2014 in Adamawa and Borno States alone; involving their Christian communities of Gwoza, Magadali, Gulak, Shuwa, Michika, Bazza, among others placed under siege by Boko Haram insurgency”. Respected researcher, Ewelina Ochab was also quoted in the Prof Joash Amunpitan’s Legal Opinion for the Aid to the Church in Need as having disclosed that more than 100 churches were burned down in Taraba State alone during Boko Haram. According to Christian Today, dated Oct 24, 2025, the Catholic Bishop of Maiduguri Diocese, Bishop John Bakeni recently told the United Kingdom Parliament and its lawmakers that more than 200 churches and chapels were damaged by Boko Haram in Maiduguri alone by spring of 2017 and 1.8m displaced by violence. (https://share.google/ZI003nTATHQq7724F).

Aside these statistical citations on how estimated 19,100 churches were downed including being burned down or destroyed or closed in the past sixteen years (2009-2025), the number was also likely to have been under-quoted. This is more so when out of the attacked or destroyed or closed down churches estimated at 6,100 since July 2015, no fewer than 1000 belonging to members of the Organization of the African Instituted Churches (OAICs) were also targeted for attack, leading to their destruction or burning or shut down mostly by deployed security forces in Eastern Nigeria especially in the period covering Oct 2020 to Oct 2025. The security forces particularly the military and the police crack squads and their officers are also found to have hidden under the pretext of “IPOB/ESN/BIAFRA counterterror operations” to falsely label church buildings and allied facilities belonging to OAICs and affiliated “white-clothing” others as “IPOB/ESN training facilities” and used the same to unleash state terror and war-grade weapons on such facilities, starting with those located in Rivers (during Obigbo Army massacre and massive destruction of defenseless civilian properties in Rivers State) in Oct-Nov 2020 and Orlu in Imo State in Jan 2021.
Addition to the above were massive attacks and destructions visited upon other thousands of churches by Jihadist Fulani Militants and allied others covering 2015 to Oct 2025. It must also be clearly explained that a church is a sacred place gathered by parishioners or congregants in the name of Christian God or Jesus Christ. This is irrespective of the size of such church building and number of its congregants or parishioners. Burning down by Jihadists of a Catholic Church Parish and occupation of its ten outstations in Makurdi or Katsina-Ala Diocese of Benue State, for instance, translates to burning down or destruction or sacking of Eleven Catholic Churches; likewise, burning down or destruction or sacking of Warehouse-based churches or church Hall ministries. Sufficient references have therefore been provided to back up our statistical position on the number of churches attacked in the past sixteen years, during which not less than 5,100 others were attacked across Nigeria between 2015 and Oct 2025. Churches are simply defined to include chapels, church buildings or compounds where parishioners are gathered in worship for Jesus Christ or Christian God. Church or Christian Schools are also defined to include refectories, sisters’ convents, seminary schools and mission schools and so on; likewise, Catholic clerics which include nuns, priests, revered brothers, seminarians, monsignors and bishops.

ESTIMATED OVER 100,000 CHURCHES IN NIGERIA: Though it is difficult to get the exact number of church branches belonging to different Christian denominations under the leadership of CAN in Nigeria, independent estimates put the number to more than 100,000, out of which the Living Faith Church (Winners’ Chapel) was said to have estimated 21,000 branches, followed by the Assemblies of God with 16,300 branches as of 2019. Catholic Church is presently quartered in thousands of parishes and tens of thousands of outstation or semi parishes throughout Nigeria, with Diocese of Sokoto under Bishop Hassan Kukah having one of the least with 32 parishes and 16 outstations. Among these numbers, not less than 19,100 have been lost in the past sixteen years to Jihadist Fulani Militants and allied others, in addition to estimated 1000 or more lost to ethno-religiously radicalized security forces especially in the East and the Old Middle Belt as well as the Southern Kaduna.

SHARED DATA ON CHRISTIAN KILLINGS AND DOWNING OF 19,100 CHURCHES: We have in the past sixteen years collected or shared data on killing of Christians and destruction or burning of churches with leading Christian religious and community groups and their leaders across Nigeria. They included the Southern Kaduna Peoples’ Union (SOKAPU), the Adara Development Association, the Middle-Belt Forum and branch and central leaders of CAN in Northern Nigeria; especially Intersociety’s close friend, Dr. Musa Asake, brave and fiery former Secretary Gen of CAN, who suddenly died in office in 2018. We have also shared data with respected researchers like Nina Shea, Ewelina Ochab, Douglas Bourton, Johan of Hudson Institute and respected groups like Christian Post, Truth-Nigeria, Release International, International Christian Concern, Catholic World Report and its affiliated ACIA, ACI, CRUZ, EWTN as well as several local and international Christian bodies. We have severally been quoted by Fox News Digital, Christian Broadcasting Network and tapped from credible and widely quoted research works of the Open Doors, the Stefanus Foundation, the 21st Century Initiative and the Christian Daily’s Morning Star News, etc.

THEIRS: The Nigeria army has claimed that your organisation is affiliated with IPOB, operating in the Southeast of Nigeria, which has often spoken about these issues. Does InterSociety have links with the Indigenous People of Biafra? Or is it affiliated with or share its research with any Biafra organisations based in the United States?

RESPONSE: Looking critically at the second line of your question, it is like your BBC team has joined the Nigerian Army in making or concocting such spurious and unfounded accusation against Intersociety. May we also remind you that our grounded and uncompromising advocacy activities in Nigeria or any part thereof, predate the present ethno-religiously radicalized and lopsidedly composed Nigerian Army since July 2015. In other words, we have existed and operated more than seven years before the lopsidedly composed NA under Retired Major Gen Muhammad Buhari Government was put in place. By that second question of yours, you have wittingly or unwittingly joined the NA in false class-labelling us. Asking if we are affiliated with or shared our research with any Biafra organizations based in the United States, clearly falls short of media professionalism and neutrality which your BBC team has struggled to assure us.

Such question of yours is also an extension of cultural violence campaign against lawful and law abiding members of the Igbo Ethnic Nationality of Africa, spread across not less than 89 countries of the world and divided into first, second, third, fourth and fifth generations in order of their migration to the United States and other parts of the world. By that referenced second line question of yours, the BBC under your coordination and anchorage is obviously attempting to mass-falsely label the entire Igbo World and their highly respected Population and their respective homeland or Diaspora communities or organizations as “Biafra Communities or Organizations in the United States or elsewhere”; in clear attempts to discredit us and our works.

The BBC under you is also faulted intellectually for undermining or ignoring the International Rules of Engagement and Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Protocols of 1977, regarding the role of Human Rights and Humanitarian watchdogs in monitoring and tracking excesses in the operational activities of the armed state actors and combative activities of the armed non-state actors with respect to the welfare, safety and security of members of the civilian population living in troubled or conflict areas. By the way, when has it become our advocacy business to start monitoring which organization shares our advocacy activities including released reports? Let it be placed on record that every human rights or humanitarian watchdog is universally empowered under UN System to monitor, track and research in any troubled or conflict area especially where members of the civilian population are identified as having been endangered by the fighting parties and nothing under the international law stops such groups including Intersociety from launching an investigation or producing a report, during which they can gather credible data from anywhere including collecting such from the affected civilian population as well as mirroring down their advocacy works on state actor and non-state actor fighting parties.

Let it also be BOLDLY STATED that Intersociety is not affiliated to or an affiliate of IPOB and can never be. We are only interested at ensuring the protection of vulnerable members of the Eastern civilian population by exposing blanket labelling of such uninvolved defenceless citizens as “IPOB members” by the IPOB itself or state actor fighting parties especially the military. We have also clashed severally with IPOB leadership in their attempts to label uninvolved citizens of the East as “their own IPOB members”. It has remained our position that “not every citizen of the South-East and the South-South civilian population is a member of IPOB”. As a matter of fact, at least six out of every eight South-East and South-South civilian citizens are not IPOB members and have nothing to do with the group. By law, it amounts to atrocity-crime or crime against humanity or war crime to shoot and kill unarmed IPOB members, more so when not every IPOB member is an armed ESN operative. It is also a war crime under Geneva Conventions of 1949 to kill a wounded or surrendered combatant who was taken alive into custody and killed in the same custody by armed state actors. We have severally clashed in the media with IPOB leaders and leadership especially in 2017 and 2021 over the group’s “no more election in Anambra or South-East stance”. Our leader, Emeka Umeagbalasi and members of his nuclear family were nearly abducted and killed on Nov 27 and Dec 5, 2024 by strongly suspected “Counterfeit Biafra Agitators”, during which his car was snatched twice and his wife, son, house helper and driver narrowly escaped being abducted and killed in his in-law’s town of Arondizuogu in Imo State and Ezinifite in Aguata, Anambra State-during and after his father’s in-law’s funeral.

It is therefore our informed position that Nigerian Army is falsely labelling Intersociety as “IPOB-affiliated” in order to ward off being regularly checkmated over its grisly and egregious human rights abuses and violations including corruption and brutalities in the line of their operations in Eastern Nigeria. This is to the extent that the above has remained the stock-in-trade of the Nigerian Army and its Armed Forces proprietor-body since after Oct 2020 when it invaded Obigbo in Rivers State with war-grade weapons, during “EndSARS”; and in less than 30 days (Oct 21, 2020-Nov 10, 2020) massacred 130 unarmed and defenceless Obigbo residents, injured 150 others, abducted a total of 620 persons including 540 men and 80 women; out of which 468 were rescued by rights groups and their pro bono lawyers and 152 still unaccounted for till date (Oct 2025). The Nigerian Army has falsely labelled Intersociety as “IPOB-affiliate” more than six times including in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, especially whenever it is called upon to render its operational and law enforcement public accountability.

The Nigeria Army has also earned notoriety in false labelling especially each time it is called upon render public accountability of its law enforcements and operations. For instance, NA had severally falsely labelled Amnesty International as “Boko Haram-affiliate” during the Amnesty International presentation, years back, of its several reports in the North-East, during which the Army was also fingered in several sponsored campaigns of calumny against several rights groups in Nigeria since July 2015 using mushroom media and CSO groups. The Nigerian Governments, especially under Buhari and Tinubu have gravely applied “Weapon of Cultural Violence” against the People of Eastern Nigeria especially the South-East and the respected Region’s social entities and respected voices, to the extent of labelling them “Biafra/IPOB members or sympathisers” anytime they publicly speak independently or air their independent views on issues of critical regional and national importance. As a respected member of the Alliance against Genocide in USA since 2020, we have also liaised or worked with numerous international rights and justice bodies including Human Rights Watch, South Africa’s Institute for Security Studies (ISS), among others.

Thank you.
Emeka Umeagbalasi, M.Sc.
Criminologist and Researcher
Head, Int’l Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (InterSociety)
Fellow, IVLP of the US State Dept., Class of June 2013
Dated: Enugu, Sunday, Nov 2, 2025

THEIRS: Kindly send a response to us on this email by 12:00 on Monday 3rd November, 2025.
Thank you.
Olaromke Alo
BBC Global Disinformation Unit
London, United Kingdom
Wednesday, Oct 29, 2025

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