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Over 19, 000 Nigerian Churches Sacked In Last !6 Years By Suspected Jihadists – Intersociety Posted by Ignatius Okpara Featured, Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria Friday, September 26th, 2025 (AFRICAN EXAMINER) – A human rights group, International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law Intersociety, has alleged that an estimated 19,100 Churches were razed or sacked as a result of wild spread armed religious conflicts perpetrated by suspected Islamic Jihadists across Nigeria in the last sixteen years. It said “apart from estimated 13,000 churches attacked, burned down or destroyed or violently shut down between July 2009 and December 2014, additional 6,100 others are ;likely to have been lost to the country’s Islamic Jihadists and Jihad enablers since midyear of 2015 in severely affected States. The states are, “Taraba, Adamawa, Kebbi, Borno, Katsina, Niger, Kogi, Nasarawa, Plateau, Benue, Bauchi, Yobe, Southern Kaduna and Gombe. “It is also statistically found that more than 1000 churches (“white garments churches”) belonging to members of Organization of the African Instituted Churches, a branch of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and allied others have also been attacked, burned down or sacked” “With most of their attackers identified as military personnel and police crack squads or their joint task forces including personnel of the country’s spy police, perpetrated using “IPOB/ESN/Unknown Gunmen/Biafra counterinsurgency operations in the East” as a pretext. The organization equally accused the Islamic Jihadists of razing, or Sacking estimated 1200 Churches Yearly, 100 Monthly, three daily” This was contained in a statement made available to newsmen by the organization The statement was jointly signed by Intersociety Board Chairman and founder, Emeka Umeagbalasi, a Criminologist and Researcher, Barrister Obianuju Joy Igboeli, Human Rights Lawyer/Head, Dept. of Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, and Barr. Chidinma Udegbunam, a Human Rights Lawyer/Head, Dept. of Campaign and Publicity. According to the group, the above information was obtained “using severally gathered statistics from multiple sources in the past years that Nigeria’s Islamic Jihadists and Jihad enablers cutting across security, defense and political establishments. “By our recent investigative checks, Nigeria is home to ‘estimated 113m Christians including estimated “32m sedentary Christians” and “8m pastoral Christians” in the North and “estimated 70m indigenous Christians” in the South. “Among the “40m sedentary or indigenous and non-indigenous Christians” presently in Northern Nigeria are 3m traditional worshippers, many, if not lmost of whom arek Christianity-affiliated, having been baptized in Christianity and bearing Christian names. It added that “among the estimated 70m indigenous Christians in the South are 10m traditional worshippers, a greater number of whom are Christianity-affiliated. “Nigeria is also home to an estimated 100m Muslims including an estimated 76m in the North and 24m in the South-with Lagos, Oyo, Osun and Edo having greater numbers. “The ethno-religious profiling and cleansing operations in the East are found to have started since January 2021 in Orlu part of Imo State in South-East Nigeria, during the country’s security forces and their commanders targeted traditional religionists and their sacred sanctuaries using false labeling and mass criminalization premised on false narrative that “since IPOB and its leaders are followers of Jewish religion in the East. “white clothing Christian religionists” anywhere in the East are IPOB/ESN/Biafra agitators deserving to be abducted or shot dead at sight”. “Church facilities belonging to “such white garment churches” have also been falsely labeled as “training camps for IPOB/ESN/Biafra Agitators”, leading to their attack and destruction by security forces. “During which members of the traditional religion, especially their herbalist-priests were indiscriminately targeted for instant death or abduction and disappearance by security forces”. “Attacks on Christian churches and threatening and uprooting of their congregational members across Nigeria have severely uprooted and emptied thousands of their parishes and outstations and affected many, if not most parts of the 16 Dioceses of the Catholic Mission in Nigeria. It said “to the extent that Archdiocese of Kaduna, covering Diocese of Sokoto-with Parishes of Zamafara, Kebbi and Katsina presently exists with skeletal parishes and outstations, forced them into a state of near-empty church buildings. “Benue State’s four Dioceses of Makurdi, Gboko, Okukpo and Katsina-Ala; home to largest Catholics and denominational Christians in Northern Nigeria, followed by Plateau State; have been threatened and almost uprooted; with more than twenty of their parishes and hundreds of outstations threatened and closed by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen. “In Plateau State, Catholic Archdiocese of Jos (Ecclesiastical Province of Jos), comprising Dioceses of Bauchi, Maiduguri, Jalingo (Taraba State), Pankshin (Plateau State), Shendam (Plateau State), Wukari (Taraba State) and Yola (Adamawa State) are facing serious congregational emptiness and evangelical devastation. “Same goes to Catholic Dioceses of Minna and Kontagora in Niger State where dominant Christian communities in Shiroro, Munya, Rafi, Paikoro, etc., have been uprooted and placed under siege by combined forces of the Islamic Jihadists led by Jihadist Boko Haram and Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen/Bandits. “The Catholic Diocese of Lokoja under Archdiocese of Abuja is also facing serious threat, worsened by recent Jihadist activities of “Mahmuda and Lakaruwa Islamic Jihadists and their patrons”. “Going forward, Intersociety is reminding all and sundry that it reputedly tracks and monitors egregious and grisly human rights abuses and violations including religious violence in Nigeria or any part thereof and beyond the borders of the country. “Our monitoring and tracking are aimed at identifying perpetrators of such heinous crimes, their victims and perpetrators and the society or community wronged or desecrated; and ensuring justice for victims and society wronged and adequate measures or punishments visited upon the perpetrators to deter others and prevent repeat-perpetration. “All these we do using six major advocacy strategies or methods including:, tracking, compilation and analysis reports or works done by local and international media, human rights and researchers. The second one is, using verifiable individual and groups’ reports or pieces of evidence including those from leaders of the affected Christian communities or other religious bodies. Also, “using verified government reports such as those emanating from security agencies. “Using findings from diplomatic and intergovernmental bodies, deploying our field research assistants at incident or crime scenes for purposes of data collection, analysis, documentation and publication. Short URL: https://www.africanexaminer.com/?p=104439
