Alleged Christian genocide: Nigerians in US demand action against perpetrators

By Nkiruka Nnorom with agency report

Nigerians in diaspora under the aegis of Save Nigeria Group USA, have rallied against the alleged killing of Christians in the country, calling on the US President, Donald Trump, to take immediate action against perpetrators of the religious freedom violations.

The protesters, who thronged the US Capitol, yesterday, in solidarity to millions of Nigerians displaced from their ancestral homes and those killed as a result of their faith, said that Nigeria has abandoned the foundation that once held its diverse people together.

The call for action against perpetrators of religious violence in Nigeria came a day after the US Department of State took a decisive step on visa restriction against those deemed to be enabling Christian genocide in the country.

According to the US, the perpetrators and their immediate family members would be targeted in the planned visa ban.

The latest decision by the US followed series of hearings on alleged Christian killings in Nigeria by the US Congress ordered by Trump after he redesignated Nigerian as a Country of Particular Concern.

Speaking during the protest, the leader of the group, Mr. Stephen Osemwegie, decried the seeming intractable ethnic-inspired religious killings and recurrent kidnapping of citizens which have ravaged many parts of Nigeria, wondering why the government which should have the primary duty of protecting lives and property has failed to do so in Nigeria.

He urged the U.S Senate Majority leader John Thune to bring Senator Ted Cruz’s bill, S.2747, to the floor for an immediate vote,  to target terror sponsors, sanctions corrupt officials, and cut off money fueling the killings.

He urged the United States House of Representatives through its Speaker, Mike Johnson to urgently pass the House Resolutions H.Res. 860, Rep. Chris Smith, H.Res. 866, Rep. Riley Moore both of which recognise the ongoig killings as Christian Genocide, seek to document atrocities, support President Trump’s intervention, demand accountability and call for action to protect the displaced.

He said: “We gather today not because of the buildings behind us, but because of the truth we are speaking, the justice we are demanding, and the lives we refuse to forget.

“I stand before you not only as President of Save Nigeria Group USA, but as a son of Nigeria, a witness to the suffering, and a believer in the power of faith, truth, and righteous action.

“Today, as we raise our voices here in Washington, millions of Christians across Nigeria are living in terror. In Plateau, Benue, Kaduna, Taraba, Southern Kaduna, Borno and the South East, the attacks are relentless, churches burned, pastors beheaded, villages wiped out, women and children abducted, entire communities erased, over 11 million displaced Christians struggling to survive.

“Only days ago, over 300 Christian school children were kidnapped at Saint Mary’s Catholic School. This is not random violence. This is not farmer-herder conflict, this is a systematic campaign of religious and ethnic cleansing, carried out by jihadist militias and protected by political actors. Call it what it is: A Christian Genocide.

“On November 1, President Donald Trump with courage, moral clarity, and a heart for the persecuted redesignated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, CPC. This was not symbolic, this was the first true step toward stopping the killings. President Trump saw what many refused to see. He said what many feared to say and he acted when others sat in silence. We thank him. We honour him. And we stand with him.”

He lamented that though the 1960 Constitution respected Nigeria’s unique religious, and cultural diversity, the new centralised system established through several military coups, had created a weaponised federal structure that empowers extremists, suppresses regions, and fuels oppression.

Echoing the recent position held by former President  Olusegun Obasanjo, he said: “Former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo recently said: ‘When a government fails to protect its citizens, the people have the right to call for international intervention.’ That moment is now. Nigeria’s government has failed. And we as Nigerians in the diaspora have the right, the duty, and the calling to demand global action.”

The group called for what it termed full CPC enforcement. “We demand sanctions, visa bans, asset freezes, criminal referrals against any Nigerian political figure, military officer, security official, or financier involved in terror sponsorship, covering up massacres, protecting killers, profiting from stolen crude oil, profiting from blood minerals, benefiting from mass displacement. Blood money must not continue flowing through American banks or global markets.”

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