Concerns over the safety of Mgr. Wilfred Anagbe, the Bishop of Makurdi in Nigeria, and Fr. Remigius Ihyula are growing after the two men testified about the persecution of Christians in Africa’s most populous nation.
On March 12, 2025, the Nigerian prelate testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, detailing what he called the “egregious” violation of human rights in a country that has become “one of the most dangerous and insecure places for Christians.“
He fingered militant, Islamic Fulani herdsmen whom he described as terrorists “destroying society.”
“They steal and vandalize, they kill and boast about it, they kidnap and rape, and they enjoy total impunity from the elected authorities.”
He said the target of these attacks is mostly Christians and, to a lesser extent, moderate Muslims.
Nigeria, with some 238 million inhabitants, is nearly evenly divided between Christians and Muslims. But Anagbe sees a nefarious plan by those in power to turn the country into an Islamic state.
“Islamist extremists are fiercely contesting the possession, control and governing law of the land, especially in the country’s northern and central regions, the latter of which is where Benue is located,” he told Congress.
“A long-term, Islamic agenda to homogenize the population has been implemented, over several presidencies, through a strategy to reduce and eventually eliminate the Christian identity of half of the population,” Anagbe said.
He explained that the Islamization strategy includes both violent and non-violent actions. These include the exclusion of Christians from positions of power, the abduction of Church members, the raping of women, the killing and expulsion of Christians, the destruction of churches and farmlands of Christian farmers, followed by the occupation of such lands by Fulani herders.
He said the quest to Islamize the land appears high on the agenda of some of the powerful and influential Muslims in Nigeria, noting that there is a campaign to take land to spread Islam.
“And there is the hemorrhaging of Christian farmers from the central region of Nigeria,…as they are forced to abandon fertile land that used to feed the nation.”
He said there is “an organized, systematic, and brutal cleansing of Christians by militant Fulani terrorists who are killing countless innocent men, women and children and displacing millions from their ancestral homes.”
Some statistics suggest that some 515 predominantly Christian farming communities have so far been displaced in Benue State alone.
Bishop Anagbe’s testimony has not been received well with authorities in Nigeria, with some reports suggesting the powers that be are now threatening the life of the bishop, as well as that of Fr. Remigius, with whom he testified in Congress and in the UK Parliament.
“On March 28, 2025, Fr. Remigius Ihyula received a message from an embassy in Abuja warning that there might be an arrest warrant for Bishop Anagbe upon his return to Nigeria,” said Rev. Fr. Joseph Terfa Beba, chairman of the Nigerian Catholic Diocesan Priests Association (NCDPA) in a statement given on April 10.
Various reports have identified Nigeria as a major persecutor of Christians. According to Open Doors International, 3,100 of the 4,476 Christians murdered globally in 2024 were killed in Nigeria.
The latest report by the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law, Intersociety, notes that some 20,300 Christians have been killed in South East Nigeria since 2015.
The threats on the clerics have sparked global outrage, with the US Mission in Nigeria saying it was deeply troubled by the reports of intimidation against the clergymen.
“Freedom of expression is an essential human right and central to the function of democracy, in Nigeria and the United States. No one should be subject to threats for exercising that right,” the US mission in Nigeria said in a statement on April 8.
“We call on all actors to respect Bishop Anagbe and Father Remigius’s right to speak freely without fear of retribution or retaliation,” the statement added.
Politicians from both the US and the UK have also expressed outrage at the threats against the Nigerian clerics. U.S. Republican Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey, who chaired the March 12 hearing, has also issued a statement while spearheading efforts to reinstate the Country of Particular Concern, CPC, label on Nigeria.
“I am appalled by reports that Bishop Wilfred Anagbe and Fr. Remigius Ihyula are facing threats — allegedly from Nigerian government sources and affiliated organizations — because of the Bishop’s testimony before Congress detailing violence in Nigeria’s Benue State,” said Smith.
“Credible sources now indicate that Bishop Anagbe may face detention upon returning to Nigeria, and I also fear there are some who would seek to do him physical harm.”
He said the situation “mirrors the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) well-documented tactics of transnational repression — trampling civil liberties and attempting to silence dissidents far beyond its borders.”
Lord David Alton of the UK House of Lords joined Smith in condemning the threats against the clerics.
Writing on ‘X’ (previously Twitter), the British lawmaker stated that “UK Parliamentarians who invited him [Bishop Anagbe] to speak will treat such intimidation with the utmost gravity.”
He called for a stop to the threats and urged heightened security vigilance to guarantee the safety of the clerics.
Robert Řehák, a Czech Republic ambassador at large for the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance (IRFBA), in an April 11 statement, said he “is appalled to discover from our members that threats are being made against Bishop Wilfred Anagbe by various entities.”
“Nigeria has been known for decades as an example of multifaith cohabitation,” he wrote. “Therefore, I call on the Nigerian government to help to stop the attacks on Bishop Wilfred Anagbe, and to implement strong security measures around him and his team.”
The Nigerian government, on April 12, sought to downplay both the threats to the Church leaders and their testimonies in the US and UK.
“The assertion that the Nigerian government has ‘allowed the violence to escalate unchecked’ is both inaccurate and unfair,” said Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Ministry in a statement signed by its spokesperson, Kimiebi Imomotimi Ebienfa, on behalf of the Minister,Ambassador Yusuf Maitama Tuggar.
He claimed that the Nigerian situation was highly complex, but one that the security forces have been consistently taking action to bring to an end.
But Douglas Gray Burton, managing editor of TruthNigeria believes Tuggar’s response is a cynical way of keeping the truth about plans to annihilate Christianity in Nigeria under wraps.
“Tagger’s shrewd response aims to disable criticisms of Bishop Anagbe without explicitly denying them,’ he said in a statement sent to CWR.
He explained that by claiming that “the situation is complex,” Tuggar is using “intellectual” tactics to confuse or avoid accountability.
His aim, Doug explained, is to create uncertainty and make it harder for the U.S. to challenge Nigeria’s unofficial approach, which involves appearing to enforce laws while subtly supporting gradual Islamization.
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Since the bishop’s visit to the US, well over 100 Nigerian Christians have been murdered by Islamic terrorists in various attacks, including an obligatory Holy Week massacre. If the Vatican even commented on the latest atrocities, I haven’t heard about it. If they eventually do bother to make a statement, it will be the usual condemnation of nameless religious “fundamentalism” and inexplicable “violence.” Rome’s betrayal of African Christians is as callous and egregious as its sellout of the Church in China to the CCP.
I wonder when the West is going to wake up. I wonder IF the West is going to wake up.
Good questions, Deacon:
So long as so many people in the West and the East continue to engage in head-in-the-sand wishful thinking that includes the absurd notions that there is a “radical Islam” and a “moderate Islam,” and terrorists are wrongly identified as part of “radical Islam” instead of recognizing that they are simply the most faithful of Muslims carrying out the requirements of Islam, waking up by the West and the East will not be done.
A very good website (for the most part) that provides sound wake up calls on a daily basis as well as pertinent and encyclopedic-type information about the reality of Islam and other resources is https://thereligionofpeace.com/ Check it out, bookmark it, and pass it on to help wake up more people about the ongoing barbarism and perpetual danger of Islam.
MelSarto: Thanks for the reference link.
Good questions, Deacon:
So long as so many people in the West and the East continue to engage in head-in-the-sand wishful thinking that includes the absurd notions that there is a “radical Islam” and a “moderate Islam,” and terrorists are wrongly identified as part of “radical Islam” instead of recognizing that they are simply the most faithful of Muslims carrying out the requirements of Islam, waking up by the West and the East will not be done.
A very good website (for the most part) that provides sound wake up calls on a daily basis as well as pertinent and encyclopedic-type information about the reality of Islam and other resources is https://thereligionofpeace.com/ Check it out, bookmark it, and pass it on to help wake up more people about the ongoing barbarism and perpetual danger of Islam.