The Federal Government has refuted recent allegations by some international platforms and online influencers suggesting that terrorists in Nigeria are engaged in a systematic genocide against Christians.
 
Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, in a statement yesterday, described the claim as “false, baseless, and dangerously divisive,” warning that such a narrative distorts reality and serves the agenda of terrorists, who aim to divide Nigerians along religious and ethnic lines.
  
According to him, Nigeria’s security challenges, like those of many other nations, are complex and multifaceted, and should not be mischaracterised as a targeted assault on any particular faith. 
 
“The violent acts of these criminals are indiscriminate. Their victims cut across faith and ethnicity; Muslims, Christians, and even those with no religious affiliation have all suffered their atrocities,” Idris stated.
 
Highlighting recent counter-terrorism successes, the minister said between May 2023 and February 2025, over 13,543 terrorists and criminals were neutralised, while nearly 10,000 hostages were rescued in military operations nationwide. 
 
He also disclosed that last month, the top leadership of ANSARU, the country’s Al-Qaeda affiliate, was captured in a coordinated raid, a feat he said “debunks the narrative that Nigeria tolerates religiously motivated terrorism.”
 
Idris reaffirmed that Nigeria is a multi-religious state with thriving Christian and Muslim communities.
 
“Christianity is neither endangered nor marginalised in Nigeria. Both the Chief of Defence Staff and the Inspector General of Police are Christians, proof of the inclusivity of our national leadership,” the minister noted.

He also pointed to international recognition of Nigeria’s interfaith peacebuilding efforts, recalling the March 2025 Commonwealth Peace Prize awarded to two Nigerian religious leaders, Rev. James Movel Wuye and Imam Muhammad Nurayn Ashafa, for decades of promoting trust and tolerance across faiths.