The founder of the Kingsway International Christian Centre, Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo, has questioned the Federal Government’s inability to end terrorism in Nigeria after more than 15 years, describing the country’s insecurity as a complex crisis with “five heads or more.”
Speaking at a press conference ahead of his upcoming Chris Compassion to the Rural World crusade, Ashimolowo addressed what he described as patterns of alleged genocide against Christians across various parts of the country.
He said his position was shaped not only by reports but by lived experience.
“The dictionary defines genocide as the deliberate and systematic killing or persecution of a large number of people from a particular national or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group of people,” he said.
“Let me give my background. I was born in Zaria. I was born in the military barracks and I grew up in Zaria (Kaduna State). So my answer does not come out of just newspaper but with experience.”
Ashimolowo recalled witnessing the Zaria riots in his youth.
“I was there during the Zaria riots when your crime was that you were Igbo. They didn’t tell me. I saw it. People were being killed right before my eyes. And there were soldiers trying to prevent it.
“I remember a man coming down with a deep dent in his military helmet as the guys were screaming and walking the roads of Zaria and screaming, ‘Our eyes have opened,’ following the first coup by Kaduna Nzogwu. There certainly was genocide because people were being dragged out of their homes and killed.”
He described Nigeria’s insecurity as “a snake with five heads or more heads,” listing banditry, terrorism, armed invaders occupying farmlands, kidnapping and “the herdsme’ deliberate displacement of communities as heads” of the crisis.
“When you are looking at each case, you need to know which end you are dealing with… Are these things happening in Nigeria or not?” he asked.
Citing past religious extremism, he recalled “a man in the seventies who taught a form of Islamic cleansing” and insisted that dissenters “must die.” He asked, “Is that not genocide and is that fair in a secular nation?”
Speaking on the historical crises in Southern Kaduna, he said,
“Somebody was still not satisfied and wanted their land… people were being hacked, cut like animals, because you wanted their land and because they didn’t follow your religion. Is that genocide or not?”
He referenced the killing of Deborah Samuel, noting that she had merely said, “This platform is for our study, not for religion,” after which she was murdered.
So many barristers who hold the religious faith different from her showed up to defend the guys who killed her. Is that genocide or not?” he asked.
He mentioned the murder of Evangelist Eunice in Abuja:
“That was what Evangelist Eunice did, and they hacked her to death.”
Ashimolowo cited late Dr. Obadiah Mailafia’s claims that security forces often failed to respond until after attacks.
“When we called people who should come and defend them—the military, the police—they don’t show. It is after the people are gone that they show.” Referring to Mailafia’s allegation of “mysterious helicopters” supplying weapons, he asked, “Is that not a plan of genocide?”
He condemned attacks on Christian communities in the North, referencing a song broadcast on northern radio claiming “the whole of Nigeria is the land belonging to Shehu Usman Dan Fodio.”
He said, “Somebody somewhere does not want this kind of gathering, facing the reality.”
On schoolgirl kidnappings, he said the victims suffered “child molestation,” “trafficking,” forced conversion, forced marriage, rape, and murder, yet Nigerians were told the perpetrators were “forgiven.”
“Who forgave them? Where were they forgiven? Which court of law?” he asked. He criticised rumours that some were absorbed into the military:
“How can a man who killed and committed all these crimes now qualify to be a defender of the nation?”
Comparing Nigeria with the UK, he said,
“If you touch a child in an indecent way, you will be in the register of child molesters… There are jobs you cannot get. In our own case, we said these guys are forgiven. Where did we see their repentance? Where is the fruit of their repentance?”
He recalled visiting Maiduguri, where he was told churches could only exist in Bulu Kutu, adding that when he visited, “three quarters of the churches were just burnt.”
“Is there genocide? I didn’t say there is genocide. You will have to answer if there is genocide or not,” he said.
Referencing the Nigerian Civil War, he questioned the continued endurance of terrorism.
“Despite the intensity of that terrible war that fragmented and hurt Nigeri, they tried to end it in a two and a half years. How come you cannot end terrorism in 15 years? My mother used to say, if a child is throwing stones and throwing stones and the stone does not end, there is a supplier close by.”
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