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From US: Military, police, complicit in terrorism in Nigeria
Signals coming from the United States, are indicating that personnel of both the Nigerian Army (NA) and the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) are complicit in the massive terrorism activities Nigerians have been subjected in over the years, which have grown to a new high quite recently.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which made the allegation on Wednesday, pointedly accused some police and army officers of colluding with Fulani militias in deadly attacks and mass abductions targeting religious communities across Nigeria.
The group in a report on the security crisis, urged US Congress to bar individuals lobbying on behalf of foreign governments Washington had blacklisted for severe religious freedom violations from receiving payment for such services.
Part of the report, read: “The fates of all these kidnapping victims, like so many others, remain unknown to the public due to the sensitivity of ransom negotiations and, in some cases, possible collusion between perpetrators and some officials from the police and/or army.
“Further complicating matters is the fact that both conflicting media narratives and reported government censorship have hindered accurate analysis of the identities and motivations of the alarming number of armed nonstate actors that violate religious freedom in Nigeria.
“Some observers have argued environmental and economic factors as the driving force behind Fulani militants’ acts of violence, while others have suggested that these actors are engaged in a concerted campaign of outright genocide against non-Muslims, especially Christians.
“In fact, multiple and overlapping factors, including religion in many cases, likely spur Fulani militants to attack communities or individuals.’’
The report, which revealed that escalating violence in Nigeria’s Middle Belt had driven at least 1.3 million people from their homes, as armed attacks continued to destabilise several states in the region, estimated that about 30,000 armed actors operated across the country in loosely organised groups, ranging from 10 to 1,000 members, with activity concentrated in the North-West, Middle Belt and parts of the south.
Stressing that the scale of displacement reflected what it described as a persistent and widening security crisis affecting millions of residents across central Nigeria, it added: “These actors operate in a variety of contexts and with a multiplicity of likely aims and motivations.
“While many Fulani militant groups wage independent attacks, others periodically coordinate with a wide range of other actors, from conventional bandit gangs seeking financial enrichment to recognised terrorist organisations that espouse a violent interpretation of Islam.
“These Fulani militant attacks, among those of other actors, have forced at least 1.3 million people in the Middle Belt off their lands and into overcrowded, unsanitary, and unsafe conditions in displacement camps.
“The militants frequently attack isolated rural communities at night using motorcycles, automatic weapons and machetes. They often wield machetes and descend on vulnerable communities during the night, eliciting terror as a way to force victims to quickly leave and to achieve greater control of desired land.
“The violence has been driven by repeated attacks on rural settlements, often leaving entire communities abandoned as residents flee for safety. These armed actors are operating without centralised leadership but frequently carrying out coordinated raids on vulnerable rural communities across several states.
“Several attacks carried out in 2025 and early 2026, including mass killings in Benue and Plateau states. One attack in Benue in June 2025 killed at least 200 people, including internally displaced persons living in a Catholic mission.
“In Yelwata, Benue State, in 2025, more than 200 Christians, mostly sleeping women and children, were reportedly killed and over 3,000 people displaced. Militants deliberately timed some attacks to coincide with Christian religious holidays. Militant actors have often carried out operations during Christian holidays such as Christmas or Easter to further maximise the psychological impact.”
The report, also cited how the terrorists in February 2026, killed at least 32 people in Niger State and subsequently attacked Holy Trinity Parish in the Kafanchan Diocese of Kaduna State, abducting 11 including parish priest, Father Nathaniel Asuwaye, after killing three others, highlighting how in many cases, both churches and mosques.
“In February 2026, armed men kidnapped an imam and seven worshipers from a mosque in Plateau. They demanded a ransom of N16m. On Easter Sunday, Fulani militants reportedly killed five worshippers at two churches in Kaduna State while abducting 31 others.”
Noting that conflicting narratives surrounding the violence had complicated efforts to determine the motivations behind the attacks, the commission criticised the federal and state authorities for what it described as inadequate responses to the violence.
It also revealed how some Christian advocates accused security agencies of showing favouritism toward Muslim communities during investigations and security operations, noting that governors from 11 states launched an initiative in June 2025 to establish ranch lands for herders in a bid to reduce clashes over grazing routes and farmland.
While referring to the concern of the Federal Government to the October 2025 decision by US President, Donald Trump, to designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), over religious freedom violations, the group urged Congress to bar individuals lobbying on behalf of foreign governments the US had blacklisted for severe religious freedom violations from receiving payment for such services.
It also recommended for legislation “prohibiting any person from receiving compensation for lobbying on behalf of foreign governments of countries the State Department designates as Country of Particular Concern, CPCs.”
Justice Muhammad Nuraddeen Bello of High Court sitting in Sokoto State has sentenced three men, including a foreign national, to death by hanging, after convicting them on charges bordering on terrorism and arms proliferation.
The convicts, Yusuf Muhammad (alias Sallau), a Nigerien; Jabbi Alhaji Yalle; and Kabiru Muhammad, were apprehended on 13th June, 2025, by the Department of State Services (DSS) Counter Terrorism Unit in connection with cross-border criminal activities bordering on arms trafficking and terrorism.
Bello, who found all three defendants guilty as charged and sentenced them to death by hanging, while also ordering the forfeiture of all monetary exhibits recovered from the convicts to the Federal Government, said: “The conviction is the latest in a series of successful prosecutions by the DSS in its sustained operations against terrorism and organised cross-border criminal networks across Nigeria.”
The sentencing is coming about two weeks after the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja sentenced each of the five suspects arrested on May 31, 2026, by the DSS for their involvement in the November 21, 2025, attack on St Mary’s Catholic School, Papiri, Niger State, to 25 years’ imprisonment.
Justice Binta Nyako, had handed down the judgment after the men, including two Nigeriens, pleaded guilty to all four terrorism-related charges, bordering on support for the commission of an act of terrorism, breaching both Section 16 of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, and the Firearms Act, were pressed against them.
According to Count One, the men were accused of jointly conspiring to assist a terrorist by agreeing and intentionally playing various roles towards conveying 15 AK 103 rifles as well as about 1,434 rounds of 7.62mm live ammunition from the Diffa region, Republic of Niger, to one Malam Ahmad, a member of the Boko Haram terrorist group based in Borgu, Niger State, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 26(1) of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
Primate Elijah Ayodele, is on the verge of coughing out a whopping N10billion, if he fails to offer unrestrained apology to Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, former Governor of Kano State within the next 24 hours, and retract his claim that the former Minister of Defence is bidding his time to betray Peter Obi, to whom he is to contest the 2027 presidential election as a running mate.
Without doing so, the controversial cleric, should be ready for a major court battle with the vice-presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), the platform on which the pair is to contest the election.
In a letter indicating a legal action against Ayodele of the INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church over defamatory remarks, Kwankwaso, through Magaji Mato Ibrahim, SAN & Co., his lawyers demanded an immediate retraction and apology from the cleric over the allegations.
Details of the letter, dated June 11, and unveiled through the X platform of the legal team, was based on a viral video recorded during a live-streamed church service, where the preacher made allegations targeting Kwankwaso’s integrity as Peter Obi’s running mate under the NDC.
Quoting the cleric as stating: “KWANKWASO IS A FAKE TO OBI, KWANKWASO WILL BETRAY YOU. KWANKWASO HAS BEEN PAID TO BE VICE PRESIDENT TO OBI AMONG OTHER LIBELOUS COMMENTS WHILE PRETENDING TO BE A PREACHER,” the former governor said the comments were unprovoked, grossly unfounded, and carefully designed to create a rift within the ranks of the political party and its supporters.
Handing Ayodele a 24-hour ultimatum to publish a full and unequivocal retraction across all social media platforms and news outlets with the same prominence as the original video, they also demanded a written undertaking that he would cease and desist from making any further malicious statements against their client, warning that failure to comply, would lead to full legal actions.
The letter stated: “We shall claim substantial damages to the tune of Ten Billion Naira and cost of the action on a full indemnity basis amongst other reliefs.”
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday demanded the immediate end to the exportation of minerals from countries in Africa in their raw forms, which he said had led to massive exploitation of the continent.
The President, told member countries of the African Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG), a forum of Ministers in charge of Mining and Solid Minerals on the continent to speak with one voice to promote, collective interests, ensure value addition, and prevent the continent from becoming merely a source of raw materials for the rest of the world.
As the Grand Patron of the group, chaired by Dele Alake, Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, gave the charge while receiving a delegation of AMSG in the State House, Tinubu told the delegation that the group had a critical role to play in strengthening Africa’s bargaining power in the global mineral market and ensuring that the continent derives maximum value from its natural resources.
His words: “ What we should do is avoid bureaucracy and deceit; we must put an end to exploitation. The rest of the world won’t mind if your country is a cesspit of dams and rubbish and excavates your raw materials without giving value.
“It is our responsibility to collaborate and cooperate to ensure that these metals and minerals bring value to us, bring technology to us, and we can do it. It is how much each country will put into the research, development and refinery. I don’t see reasons we cannot demand centralisation of that conversation somewhere on the continent. So why not utilise that in our research and development and knowledge-based economy to enhance the quality of life and bring prosperity to our people.”
Emphasising that Africa possessed enormous mineral wealth that should be strategically harnessed to drive industrialisation, create jobs and accelerate economic transformation across the continent, the President, said the era of exporting raw minerals without local processing and beneficiation must give way to a new model that encourages investment in local industries, technology transfer and the development of value chains that retain wealth within Africa.
Alake, who had earlier expressed gratitude to the President for his exemplary leadership under the Renewed Hope Agenda, said the gesture had shown support for Nigeria’s mineral sector, especially in the local value-addition and economic diversification drive, where artisanal miners are empowered.
He told the President: “You encouraged us to look at the focal point of the establishment of this group, which is to ensure that the African natural resources, especially with regards to minerals, critical matters, are localised, the beneficiation coming directly to Africans generally.
“You charged us that we should set our sails very high and ensure that local value addition is a pivot around which all the objectives of this organisation should revolve.
“So, sir, we have gone implemented your charge and we are quitted that today local value addition is reverberating all over Africa.”
He added that some member countries have gone ahead to ban the export of raw minerals.
He explained members of the body were in Abuja for the Fifth edition of the African Natural Resources and Energy Investment Summit (AFNIS 2026), to push for a new continental approach to resource management and industrial development.
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