UK-Based Religious Entity Condemns Death Threats on Christian Volunteer in Nigeria

“We will kill you like goats and your family. We know your house, your church and even your family,” they write, addressing themselves to the Nigerian Pastor, and further threaten to destroy schools, which Pastor Mutum has constructed. 

“Your movement is known by us. Tell your people to get ready for us. Inshallah we will come except you go back to tell the world you are sorry for all you […] said concerning the Fulanis. We are coming. Nigeria is our land. Southern Kaduna is our land," they write, directing the threats to the Pastor.  

The members of militia reportedly further threaten to kill Steven Kefas, a journalist and activist from Southern Kaduna. 

Reports of insecurity in Nigeria’s Kaduna State have been on the rise since the beginning of the year. 

On Tuesday, 13 July, members of the militia reportedly attacked Matyei village, torched down 156 homes, along a Catholic Church. 

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A July 12 report from the Kaduna State Ministry of Internal Security and Home Affairs indicates that at least 220 have been murdered, and 774 others abducted from the region between April and June 2021. 

In a Wednesday, July 14 virtual address to the 2021 International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, D.C., Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Nigeria’s Sokoto Diocese faulted the Federal Government of the West African nation for failing to handle insecurity in the country. 

Bishop Kukah also told the U.S. Congress that the failure of the Federal Government of Nigeria to address insecurity in the West African nation is either due to helplessness or disinterestedness.

While 68-year-old Bishop admitted that he shares the “pessimism” of those who say Nigeria is collapsing amid rampant insecurity, nepotism, and government corruption, he said that “as a Christian, I believe in the Resurrection.”

Magdalene Kahiu is a Kenyan journalist with passion in Church communication. She holds a Degree in Social Communications from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA). Currently, she works as a journalist for ACI Africa.