• 31 U.S. lawmakers hail Trump for Nigeria’s CPC redesignation
• Coalition seeks U.S. repudiation of planned invasion

Wary of the continued warning by the United States (U.S.) to undertake a swift bombardment of terrorist enclaves in the country, some foreign herders have begun to leave Nigerian territorial boundaries with their herd of cattle.

Checks by The Guardian revealed that in Gurin, a border town in the Fufore Local Government Area of Adamawa State, residents reported movement of herders from Nigeria to neighbouring Cameroon.

This is just as the Federal Government has called on the citizens not to panic, assuring that it is not only responding decisively and responsibly to recent security concerns, but also doubling efforts to contain terrorism and protect citizens’ constitutional rights.

President Bola Tinubu, on Thursday in Abuja, stated that Nigeria remains on a steady growth trajectory, with more promise of stability and prosperity as economic reforms continue to yield results and gain national and international acceptance.

“Do we have problems? Yes. Are we challenged by terrorism? Yes. But we will defeat terrorism. We will overcome the CPC designation. Nigeria is one happy family, and we shall spare no effort until we eliminate all criminals from our society. We want our friends to help us as we step up our fight against terrorism, and we will eliminate it,” President Tinubu assured.

On the current state of the economy and the relationship between Nigeria and the United States, President Tinubu assured that the Federal Government was engaging with the world diplomatically. “The most important thing is the fact that despite the political headwinds and the fear of our people, we will continue to engage with partners.

Also, Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, while speaking to journalists after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting in Abuja, said the government remained firmly committed to ensuring that every Nigerian is safe.

He stressed that the right to freedom of worship, guaranteed under the Constitution, would continue to be upheld without fear or intimidation, noting that cases of violent extremism persist in parts of the country, but maintained that security agencies are actively addressing the situation in partnership with regional and international allies.

The Minister disclosed that the Federal Government is working closely with neighbouring countries and partners such as the United States to curb terrorism, secure porous borders and bolster intelligence-sharing.

While insisting that the President Bola Tinubu-led administration will continue to strengthen law-enforcement capacity and reinforce directives to security agencies to maintain order nationwide, Idris declared: “Whatever concerns there are, the Government of Nigeria will take care of them.”

The Information Minister spoke against the background of renewed efforts by the United States to carry out President Donald Trump’s desire to carry out pre-emptive strikes against terrorists and fundamentalists, who he claimed were prosecuting a religious war against Nigerian Christians.

It was gathered that the Pentagon, the U.S. Department of War, has already forwarded a sketch for possible strikes on identified Terrorist Targets within the country, even as sources said that under the plan, the U.S. Air Force may hit some compounds housing militant groups.

According to the report, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) has submitted several options to the Department of War, responding to a request from Secretary Pete Hegseth for operational plans in line with Trump’s directive. Military officials said that the proposals, labelled “heavy,” “medium,” and “light”, outline different levels of potential engagement in Nigeria.

The “heavy option,” the officials said, would represent the most aggressive U.S. action: deploying an aircraft carrier strike group to the Gulf of Guinea and launching fighter jets or long-range bombers to hit militant targets deep inside northern Nigeria.

The “medium option” involves targeted drone strikes using MQ-9 Reaper and MQ-1 Predator drones against known militant camps, convoys, and vehicles. These drones, capable of loitering for hours, would be supported by U.S. intelligence assets tracking insurgents’ movements to enable “precise and timely” attacks, the report added.

The “light option,” however, focuses on supporting Nigerian forces through intelligence sharing and logistics while enabling joint operations against Boko Haram and other Islamist groups accused of mass killings, abductions, and church attacks.

To drive home its seriousness over the impending onslaught, the House of Representatives, yesterday, introduced a bill that proposes a set of sanctions targeting persons and organisations the lawmakers said are behind violence against members of other religious persuasions.

A section of the bill listed the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) and the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore as targets for possible visa bans and asset freezes against their members.

For long, some stakeholders held the view that the menace of cattle herders was compounded by the influx of breeders from outside the country that enjoyed the ECOWAS protocol on free movement of persons and goods across member states.

A resident of Gurin, a border town in Fufore LG, who pleaded not to be named, confirmed the movement from Nigeria to Cameroon, but explained that such cross-border movements were a routine since, according to him, “some of the herders in Nigeria have relations in Cameroon.”

There were also media reports that a substantial number of Fulani herdsmen, including those travelling on motorbikes, were seen moving out of Nigeria through the Fufore Local Government council of Adamawa State into Cameroon.

But, when contacted, the Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), DCS Abdullahi Maiwada, said the movement of people within Nigeria’s borders does not fall under the purview of the NCS, arguing that the service is rather charged with the responsibility of monitoring the movement of goods.

His words: “If it had to do with the movement of goods, then the service can comment on it. But that does not fall within our area of responsibility. I am not Immigration, I am customs, and I can only comment if you say there is massive movement of goods, so I cannot comment on what I don’t know.”

However, the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), which is the government agency responsible for ensuring border security and human movement across Nigeria’s land, air and sea borders, said that it was not aware of the massive movement of herders or humans across the border out of Nigeria.

Speaking to The Guardian over the telephone, a spokesman of the Service, Akinlabi Akinsola, merely said, “I have not heard about this, but I will confirm,” just as subsequent calls to his mobile line for updates were not answered, even as a follow-up message was not responded to.

But, despite the development in the border communities, residents of F01 Estate in Kubwa have expressed concern over the large influx of suspected Fulani men into a secluded part of the estate.

When one of the residents was accosted for clarification, he confided in The Guardian how some Fulani men numbering close to 30 were seen trooping into the area around midnight on November 4, 2025.  He disclosed that the young men settled in an empty fenced plot of land, stressing, “They were brought into the fenced empty plot by another Fulani man, who is the security guard of the plot of land.

“Many of us are worried because of the current insecurity challenges in the city and we do not know where such a large number of Fulani men were coming from or travelling to.”China opposes foreign interference, pledges support for Nigeria’s fight against terrorism

MEANWHILE, the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Yu Dunhai, said China will continue to support Nigeria in its fight against terrorism and efforts to maintain national stability. Dunhai stated this in a post on his official X handle on Thursday following a meeting with the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu.

He noted that since President Bola Tinubu’s participation in the Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation and his state visit to China last year, bilateral cooperation between both countries had produced “fruitful outcomes” that support Nigeria’s socioeconomic development.

He also reiterated China’s opposition to external interference in the internal affairs of other nations, warning against the use of religion or human rights as a pretext for sanctions or force.

Already, 31 members of the U.S. Congress have lauded Trump for restoring Nigeria’s classification as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ (CPC), a label reserved for nations accused of grave violations of religious liberty. The legislators praised Trump’s action as a “bold and moral step” to confront what they described as an ongoing persecution of Christians in Africa’s most populous country.

The commendation came through a joint statement issued by Rep. Robert Aderholt, Chairman of the House Values Action Team, and released to the media on Thursday. Aderholt said the decision revived hope among Nigeria’s Christian communities and reaffirmed America’s stance as a defender of global religious freedom.

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer praised Trump’s courage, calling him “a leader unafraid to defend people of faith.” Republican Party Chair Lisa McClain condemned the killings in Nigeria as “a moral outrage and a crime against humanity,” while Representatives Josh Brecheen, Mary Miller, and Mark Alford advocated for stiffer sanctions and stronger U.S. action against perpetrators of religious violence.

Backing Trump, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adamu Garba, has said there is an ongoing genocide in Nigeria. Garba, in a viral video, said that judging by the number of lives lost in violent attacks across the country, the situation fits the description of genocide.

He recalled that in 2014, when the APC was still in opposition, some of its members visited the White House to seek assistance over what they described then as the mass killing of Christians in Nigeria.

He said: “In fact, in 2014, the Nigerian opposition party, then the APC, were in the White House seeking the same help on the same Christian genocide as a fallout of the Chibok girls. This is established. The second thing is that even most recently, we acquired $346 million worth of weaponry from the U.S., and we are trying to send our military personnel to go and train as a factor of the diplomatic relationship between Nigeria and the U.S.

“And the U.S. has been consistently, in addition to other partners, listed as a supporting country to help us in the eradication of terrorism. And don’t forget, it is a United Nations Convention on Counterterrorism that empowers the United States to become the global front or focal point in fighting against terrorism.

He urged the Nigerian government to engage the U.S. diplomatically, negotiate responsibly, and acknowledge the scale of killings rather than dismiss the concerns outright.

BUT a coalition of Civil Society Groups in Nigeria has called on the United States Congress to act responsibly by repudiating the threats of its planned invasion of Nigeria and the designation of “Country of Particular Concern” that paints a distorted image of the country.

The groups, under the umbrella of Coalition for the Defense of Nigeria’s Sovereignty (CODENS), disclosed this on Thursday (today), during a protest march to the Lagos State House of Assembly, Alausa, Ikeja, where they unanimously denounced any form of foreign interference or military threat against the country.

The Convener, Buna Isiak, who spoke on behalf of other groups like Interfaith and Peacebuilding Forum, Almuminat Organisation, religious and traditional leaders, youth and women’s organisations, and labour unions, said the narrative that Nigeria persecutes Christians is false and misleading.

“Nigeria’s security challenges — including terrorism, banditry, and communal violence — affect citizens of all faiths. Extremist groups such as Boko Haram and ISWAP have killed far more Muslims than Christians, as their strongholds are in predominantly Muslim northern states. Likewise, armed bandits in the Northwest have attacked Muslim and Christian communities alike.

“The portrayal of Nigeria as a state-driven violator of religious freedom is, therefore, a distortion of facts. These are security challenges rooted in poverty, extremism, and governance gaps — not in state-sponsored religious persecution,” he said.

Isiak stressed that Trump’s statement threatening military intervention in Nigeria, allegedly to “protect Christians,” is both irresponsible and unlawful, noting that it constitutes a violation of the United Nations Charter, which prohibits the use or threat of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.

“It also contravenes the principles of the African Union Constitutive Act, which upholds sovereignty and non-interference in the internal affairs of member states. History offers painful lessons from similar interventions in Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Afghanistan — nations devastated under the banner of “liberation” and “protection.” Such actions have never delivered peace, only chaos and lasting instability.

“Nigeria does not require foreign bombs or boots on its soil. What we need is international cooperation, intelligence support, and developmental partnerships to help our government defeat terrorism and strengthen the rule of law.”