The Federal Government of Nigeria on Monday told the United States it’s not in any way persecuting Christians.
Lai Mohammed, Information and Culture Minister, who is in London for some media engagements, said it is a wrong narrative of the Nigerian situation to conclude that people of a particular faith are under specific attacks.
The Nigerian Minister said , “You will recall that only few months ago Nigeria was taken out of the list of countries of particular concern because it was proven that here is no iota of truth in the allegation that Christians or people of any religion were being persecuted or people were not allowed to practice religion of their choice,” he said.
“We want to say once again that Nigeria does not have a policy that denies people the freedom to practice their religion.”
Mohammed said the Constitution of Nigeria guarantees the right of anybody to practise his or her own religion without molestation and the government has always safeguarded the constitutional provision.
Nobody in Nigeria is being persecuted But we have issues of criminality going on and the criminals really do not make distinction of any religion.
“They kidnap for money, they hold people on ransom irrespective of their religion and there are some issues of communal matters dating back to many years.
“If statistic is to be taken, I can say confidently that as many Muslims as Christians have been victims of these criminals,” he said.
According to the minister, the only known group that targets Christians is the Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWAP)
He added that military operations are ongoing to wipe out the criminals.”