Yusuf Tuggar, a minister in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration, has argued that both Muslims and Christians were being killed in Nigeria and that there was no targeted campaign against Christians.
During the interview with broadcaster Piers Morgan, the Minister of Foreign Affairs disputed a report alleging that 50,000 Christians had been massacred since 2009, insisting that both that figure and the claim that 18,000 churches had been burnt were inaccurate.
When he was pressed to provide the actual number of Christians killed and churches destroyed since 2009, having dismissed the earlier figures, Tuggar said he did not know the precise numbers.
He stated that he was aware of how many churches had been attacked, noting that there had been only 52 church attacks in the last two years, and adding that the figures differed from one region to another.
He also said he had the statistics with him and clarified that, over the last five years, there had been 102 attacks on churches. He emphasised that the government was not hiding any data.
However, while responding to Tuggar’s comments, former Canadian MP, Goldie Ghamari, remarked that Tuggar was part of the government and should not be expected to say much.
While she was talking, she said, “I was a politician for 7 years. I can tell when somebody is lying and avoiding the truth. That is exactly what the foreign minister is doing — he is lying. And shame on him for lying.”
However, while he was responding during the interview (between 28:42-29:36 minute) to Ghamari’s claim, Tuggar said, “That’s what she’s trying to do — to start a war. They want to break up Nigeria the same way they broke Sudan, and now they have ran away. She is not talking about Sudan anymore, she’s not talking about South Sudan.
“This is what they want to do to Nigeria. Nigeria is Africa’s largest democracy. But people like you, who don’t really care about the freedom of Christians or Muslims or Africans, will continue to agitate for the breakup of Nigeria for war, the same way it’s happening in South Sudan.
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