Terror Raid Spike Threatens Minorities Near Nigeria’s Capital Ahead of Presidential Inauguration

The site of a recent terrorist massacre in Nasarawa state in Nigeria. (Masara Kim/The Epoch Times)

JOS, Nigeria—A series of armed attacks targeting minority groups on the outskirts of Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, has left residents terrified and sparked fears that extremists are seeking to intensify religious persecution as the country undergoes a leadership transition in the coming weeks.

Nigeria is scheduled to inaugurate its president and vice president, both of whom are Muslim, on May 29.

At least 136 people have been killed since April 16 across three Nigerian states, investigations by The Epoch Times have gathered.

The attacks occurred in Nasarawa state, 60 miles from Abuja, as well as in Benue and Plateau states, located 100 miles to the south and east of Nasarawa, respectively.

The mayor of Tattara village, Augustine Silas Gyar, is currently a refugee near Abuja, Nigeria. (Masara Kim/The Epoch Times)

Town leaders and witnesses told The Epoch Times that they blame Islamic extremists who identify as members of the Fulani tribe for the murders.

The Fulani, a large ethnic group in West Africa with more than 10 million members in Nigeria, has been accused of thousands of genocidal massacres in the country. The tribe has been responsible for three times more deaths than the Islamist militant group Boko Haram, according to the Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust, an international monitoring group in the UK.

The attacks have concentrated in areas predominantly inhabited by ethnic minorities who identify as nominal Christians or Muslims, a familiar pattern in the terror-wracked central region, according to a national politician.

“There is a premeditated intention by these [extremists] to drive out our people and occupy our land,” Mark Gbillah, a member of the Nigerian House of Representatives who represents a district in Benue, told The Epoch Times.

“[They aim to] also foist their own [forms of] government over those areas, like we are seeing in places like Kaduna.”

In the northern part of Kaduna state, which shares borders with Benue, Nasarawa, and Plateau, terrorists recently established a self-proclaimed government and imposed levies on local communities.

Maiyamma Yaro survived a machete attack near Tattara, Nigeria, on May 5, 2023. (Masara Kim/The Epoch Times)

In recent years, the majority of Mada people have identified as Christians and nominal Muslims, according to respected scholar Dr. Danladi Makpa Jibrin, who’s from Kokona.

“They said since we did not vote for them, we will not be allowed to vote again,” Augustine Silas Gyar said.

According to data from the result viewing website of the Independent National Electoral Commission, 83 percent of residents in Tattara voted for the Christian candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi.

Obi, an unexpected third force who joined the presidential race just months before the elections, was the only alternative to the candidates of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) party, Ahmed Tinubu, and the leading opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Abubakar Atiku.

Both Tinubu and Atiku are Muslims.

The APC and PDP—the leading political parties in the country—had abandoned an existing power-sharing arrangement that rotated the presidency between the majority Christian south and Muslim north of the country, sparking protests by local Christians.

Tinubu was later declared the winner of the elections amid widespread allegations of fraud.

The attacks began on April 16, when a Christian resident was murdered on the outskirts of Tattara, according to Gyar.

Ribal Danjuma, 26, had her ear and fingers cut off in an attack near Tattara village, Nigeria, on April 28, 2023. (Masara Kim/The Epoch Times)

“These are the things we suspect they are trying to do across the country,” Gbillah said.

On May 13, at least 54 residents killed in a series of attacks since April 16 were given a mass burial in Nasarawa. Forty-four of the residents were victims of attacks in two villages along the borders of Kokona and Karu counties on May 11, according to locals and media reports.

Out of the 44, 38 were buried in Karu, while six were buried in Kokona along with 10 victims of an earlier attack, according to Gyar.

Gyar is the mayor of Tattara—a district of 20 villages 59 miles southwest of Lafiya, the capital of Nasarawa state—which has previously been attacked.

The most recent invasions on April 16 and April 17 killed more than 20 residents, according to Gyar.

“These attacks started from my community, and we were yet to even bury some of our people that were killed when this latest one happened,” he said.

“Some of our people in those villages who escaped said the attack started from around 9 p.m. and lasted till the next morning without any intervention.”

The police and military in Nasarawa didn’t respond to queries from The Epoch Times.

Police arrive in Tattara, Nigeria, after the attacks on April 18, 2023. (Courtesy of Timothy Sakks)

“Many people were killed while running for cover in the bushes and many others, especially children, were burned in their houses,” Gyar said.

Local media reported that many residents feared killed in the surrounding bushes hadn’t been found by the time of the mass funeral.

More than 4,000 residents displaced in Tattara had yet to access their homes because of persisting threats of attack, Gyar said.

On May 5, terrorists attacked a desperate resident who had ridden his motorcycle to his farm near Tattara to collect some cassava tubers for his family, who were starving in Garaku, the seat of Kokona County.

Machete Attack

Maiyamma Yaro, who lived in a part of Tattara called Angwan Barau, told The Epoch Times that he was attacked with machetes by a group of four Fulani militants who burned his motorcycle after he managed to escape on foot.

Yaro’s incident occurred just one week after Fulani-speaking terrorists burned 35 houses and injured several returning residents in another part of Tattara called Kama Yanda on April 28.

Witnesses told The Epoch Times the terrorists, numbering at least 30, attacked the village of 100 residents at 10 p.m., just hours after some 20 residents had returned to their homes.

Ribal Danjuma—who had her ear and fingers severed during the attack—said the terrorists claimed that they had to kill the residents for being stubborn in returning.

Leader of the Fulani residents in Tattara, Ardo Aliyu, has denied any wrongdoing by his members, blaming “bad elements” for the attacks.

“We want peace, and we want everyone who has left their homes to come back,” Aliyu told The Epoch Times three days prior to the latest attacks that have also been linked to the Fulani.

“We are also sad about what has happened, and we are ready to discuss lasting solutions to the problems.”

The Epoch Times couldn’t reach Aliyu for further comments after the renewed attacks, which have created several new displacements, according to Daniel Ogazi, a member of the Nasarawa Legislature.

“Many communities—including those that were not attacked—have fled due to fear,” Ogazi told The Epoch Times.

Ongoing Massacres

“When attacks like these happen, people in the surrounding communities always get apprehensive,” said Ogazi, who represents Kokona at the legislative house.

The attacks in Nasarawa are similar to an ongoing massacre of minorities in Benue by terrorists identified by residents as members of the Fulani ethnicity.

A series of attacks in Guma County, 20 miles northeast of the Benue capital, Makurdi, killed more than 28 people between May 5 and May 9, according to a local town leader David Tarbo.

The attacks in the Mbawa district have targeted previously displaced residents seeking shelter in neighboring communities, Tarbo told The Epoch Times.

“We are seeing a disturbing pattern in the attacks where people that have been displaced from other communities and are now taking refuge in neighboring communities are still attacked by the Fulani,” Tarbo said.

“This type of thing has left many of us to conclude what these people want is simply to take over our land.”

Guma County Chairman Mike Nyieakaa confirmed the attacks to The Epoch Times but declined to comment further.

“You and I have talked about these things several times before, and right now, we are on the verge of transitioning to a new government,” Nyieakaa said.

“We have stopped commenting on issues like these to see what the new government will bring to the table.

“I would not like to say something now and later hear that the chairman of Guma did one thing or the other.”

Fulani Blamed

More than 20 other residents had been killed in various attacks in Guma and Apa counties in Benue since April 16.

Fulani terrorists reportedly killed 27 residents in more than 10 isolated attacks targeting ethnic minorities 190 miles away in Plateau state.

Gbillah has accused Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari of allowing members of his ethnicity to carry out massacres and pillage lands across the country.

“The president, who is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, is refusing to give the necessary orders to the military to take out these terrorists because they are his kith and kin. That shows the character of a biased president that we have,” Gbillah said.

Paul Robinson, CEO of UK-based nonprofit Release International, has described the attacks in the so-called middle belt of Nigeria as a “genocide.”

“Genocide is not a word we use lightly,” Robinson said in a statement to The Epoch Times. “But what other word is there to describe this targeted slaughter of men, women, and children?

“We have been reporting year in and year out of the targeting of Christians in Nigeria by Islamist militants.

“Not only do Nigeria’s Christians face slaughter at the hands of Boko Haram and Islamic State terrorists, but they are also being killed daily by well-armed Fulani extremists.

“And yet, Nigeria and the world just seem to stand by and let this genocide happen.”