Terrorists in Nigeria are planning a “Christmas massacre” in Plateau, Benue and Kaduna, a humanitarian organisation, Equipping The Persecuted, has said.
Speaking in Washington DC, United States, on Wednesday at a round-table conversation convened by the International Committee on Nigeria and the African Jewish Alliance, founder of the organisation Judd Saul urged President Bola Tinubu and US President Donal Trump to “do something now”.
“They’re gathering forces along the Plateau-Nasarawa border, along the Nasarawa-Benue border and along the Nasarawa-Kaduna border, and they’re planning to hit, on Christmas, on Christmas, Riyom, Bokkos, Kafanchan in Kaduna and Agatu in Benue,” Saul said.
“We got very reliable information that they’re gearing up, they’re arming, they’re weaponising, they’re planning on another Christmas massacre, and I’m imploring the Nigerian government and President Jonathan Trump to do something now, so we don’t a bunch of dead Christians in Nigeria.”
Riyom, a local government in Plateau State, is reputed for its Berom population and insecurity, being one of the few Nigerian spots to have witnessed a mass-burial killing.
In early July 2012, more than 300 people in Riyom and Barkin Ladi local governments were murdered by suspected herdsmen. On Sunday July 8, 2012 when 63 of those were to be mass-buried in Matse village in Riyom, gunmen invaded the burial, killing more than a hundred mass-burial sympathisers including Gyang Dalyop Dantong, the senator representing Plateau North at the National Assembly.
Like Riyom, Bokkos, also in Plateau, has been one of the flashpoints in Plateau. Both of them, as well as Kaduna and Benue, have recorded varied terror attacks leading to deaths this year.
The round-table meeting convened by the International Committee on Nigeria and the African Jewish Alliance was also attended by congressmen Riley Moore and Chris Smith, Senator James Lankford, and members of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, alongside some Nigerian delegation.
It was chaired by ex-congressman Frank Wolf.
A source who attended the meeting told FIJ the threat shouldn’t be discountenanced.
“Saul is a documentary filmmaker in Nigeria; he actually has about 25 reporters in the Middle Belt, and up to 90 in all of Nigeria. And he has been in the region for more than 10 years,” said the source.
“I discreetly asked him who his sources were, because he spoke so authoritatively and I think he knows what he’s saying.”
FIJ understands that Saul officially notified the US government through Riley Moore.
