The Federal Government on Monday condemned the call by five United States Republican Senators asking for the re-designation of Nigeria as a country of particular concern because of alleged persecution of Christians.
Some US senators had, in a letter to the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, also alleged violation of freedom of Nigerian Christians’ rights to practise their religion, adding that this has resulted in the persecution and deliberate attack on Christians.
However, in an interview in London, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, on Monday said the call was based on false premise and misunderstanding of what was going on in the country.
The minister said, “We want to say once again that Nigeria does not have a policy that denies people the freedom to practise their religion.
“The country also does not have a policy of violation of freedom of religion and it is not true that Nigeria persecutes anybody on account of his or her faith,” he added.
“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 for ransom irrespective of their religion and there are some issues of communal matters dating back to many years.
“If statistics is to be taken, I can say confidently that as many muslims as christians have been victims of these criminals.”
He added that the ISWAP has been behind the attacks on Christians and that the government is consistently working on bringing them to book.
“What ISWAP is doing is that because of their dwindling influence, they are now attacking churches and Christians in order to create crisis between various religious groups.
“But as a government, we are after them,” he said.
