Nigerians Criticize US Ambassador as Slayings of Christians Continue

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Two weeks after the U.S. ambassador to Nigeria’s controversial visit to a Muslim cleric, the nation’s lawless central states have been roiled by violence, including several attacks on Christian farmers, sparking concern among activists about the direction of U.S. policy in Nigeria.

In the most notable among the incidents, a band of alleged Muslim militants attempted on March 20 to gun down the governor of Benue state as he was departing his farm in south-central Nigeria by automobile.

“This past weekend, the Benue State Governor, Dr. Samuel Ortom, was attacked and barely escaped death,” Kyle Abts, co-founder of the International Committee on Nigeria, told The Epoch Times. “Since he made his assault public, declaring the attack was clearly by Fulani militants, he has been harassed by the Fulani National Movement (FUNAM) claiming responsibility, saying ‘We shall assassinate you soon.’

“Meanwhile, on March 5, the U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary Beth Leonard, was hosting the Muslim Fulani leader of Lagos, Alhaji Mohammed Bambado in Lago.

Some Nigerian activists from the killing fields of Kaduna state in north-central Nigeria, where thousands of Christian farmers have been slain by Fulani ethnic bandits or terrorists, say the visit was objectionable.

“We all saw this in the news. It was an outrage. And understandably so,” Vincent Bodam, 51, a businessman in Lagos, told The Epoch Times in an email. “This was the first time for such a visit to an unknown Fulani chief by any U.S. ambassador. We were not even told of the reason for the visit nor the outcome.

“The only time in my recollection this happened was when the then-U.S. secretary of state, John Kerry, snubbed the then-President Goodluck Jonathan and went straight to see the Sultan of Sokoto in 2014.”

Bodam, who is also a politician from southern Kaduna state, viewed the visit as a return of the Obama administration’s Muslim-friendly policy toward Nigeria.

“Ever since Jonathan declined support for same-sex marriage in Nigeria, Obama refused to sell arms to Nigeria to fight Boko Haram. He tacitly supported [President Muhammadu] Buhari and never stepped his foot in Nigeria,” he said.

Suspected Fulani militants killed 12 unarmed Christian farmers and left some elderly victims to die in their burning houses on March 18, according to Lawrence Zongo, founder of a crisis website called RuralWatch.news.

Three others were killed in a terrorist ambush on March 21, Zongo told The Epoch Times in an email.

“Since January 1, we have lost 23 people to Fulani attacks. No government assistance has come to protect my people from being killed by Fulani from January to March.”

“The weather was cold, we slept very early that day, the attackers came around 10:45 p.m., and the attack lasted for more than an hour. The attackers were many, more than 150.”

The Nigerian army arrived at about 12:45 a.m., an hour after the attack ended, Zongo told The Epoch Times.

The officer advised the villagers to “stop killing each other” and to protect themselves, Zongo said.

On March 21, suspected Fulani tribesmen killed three young men from the community in an ambush, with one other wounded by gunfire, according to Paul Musa, the leader of the young adult community of Kizachi.

“The Fulani have been attacking our community to take over the land for grazing,” David Ishaya, an elder of the Kizachi, said.

“The Fulani want to displace us and take over our land. They killed our people, burned our houses and clothes; our food also burned, we don’t have access to our land, and many may soon die of hunger.”

Ishaya said: “We want the American government to assist, because we are Christians. The Nigeria government can’t help us.”

Due to strictly enforced gun control laws in Nigeria, most rural farmers are unarmed, although the cattle-herding Fulani people carry assault rifles on a regular basis.

“The people in Kizachi don’t have arms like the Fulani,” Zongo said. Only a few people with hunting skills have locally made single shell shotguns for shooting monkeys.

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