Nigeria: Christian journalist imprisoned for reporting on 38 murdered believers

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Christian journalist Luka Binniya has been arrested and jailed in Nigeria’s Kaduna state, after he reported on the killing of 38 believers by Fulani Islamic extremists, International Christian Concern (ICC) reported Thursday.

Currently led by Fulani President Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria ranks nine of the US Open Doors 2021 Watch List of top 50 countries where Christians are persecuted.

A spokesperson for the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU), Binniyat accused the State Commissioner of Internal Security and Home Affairs of ordering his arrest because he reported on the murders of 38 believers. In communication with ICC, Binniyat said: “They brought me to Barnawa Chief Magistrate Court Kaduna…I was smuggled here from the police detention facility in Gabasawa after four days without trial. [I was held in] dehumanizing conditions. I am yet to be taken before a judge. I fear that my life is in danger.”

Steven Kefas, another Christian journalist based in Kaduna, was similarly arrested and imprisoned in 2019 for reporting on an official in Kajuru Local Government Area in Kaduna, ICC reports. “Locking Luka up means shutting down a mighty voice in SOKAPU,” Kefas told ICC.

“His selflessness will be missed. A huge vacuum has been created. Who knows—that may even be the real intention of his jailers.”

Christians in Nigeria are suffering intense persecution in the central and northern states. “Of particular concern are the twelve central and northern states that encourage or allow the implementation of criminal Sharia law and the use of Sharia courts to enforce Islamic religious codes. Kaduna State is one of the states that uses Sharia law,” ICC reports.

Moreover, Fulani militants, Boko Haram terrorists, and ISIS West Africa have murdered and kidnapped believers in Nigeria at an unprecedented, intensifying rate, with over 11,500 killed between 2015-2020. Nearly 3,500 were killed in the first half of 2021 alone.

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