Plateau Christian Leaders Call for Security Probe
The Indigenous youth coalition documented 152 affected villages and demanded answers about protection in the Nigerian state.
On October 21, in Abuja, Christian leaders from Plateau rejected accusations of bias against Nigeria's security forces and called for an investigation into alleged failures to protect rural villages, International Christian Concern reported.
A petition the coalition rejects
The trigger was a letter dated October 5. In it, representatives of Fulani organizations alleged that operations by the Department of State Services (DSS), the Mobile Police and Operation Rainbow are biased against their communities.
The response came at a press conference on October 21, at the Nigeria Union of Journalists council in Abuja. The Plateau Indigenous Youth Coalition argued that the petition, along with a video circulated on social media, could undermine security work precisely where attacks keep recurring.
«Protecting Indigenous Christian communities and ensuring that Fulani civilians are treated according to the law are not mutually exclusive tasks.»
The coalition is led by Ezekiel Peter Bini, president of the Irigwe Youth Movement. Also signing are Dalyop Solomon Mwantiri of the Berom Youth Association; Miri Timnan Nyantau of the Tarok Progressive Youth Association; and Jonathan Kyesmang Yusuf of the Mwagavwul Youth.
Officers killed and 152 communities
The coalition says it has documented at least 152 hamlets, villages and communities hit by the same pattern: armed men advancing with cattle onto farmland, destroying crops and attacking settlements.
It also listed attacks in which state agents were among the victims. According to its statement, two DSS officers were killed on August 23 in Tanjol and Tarai, in the Jol community, and the attackers took their rifles toward Rankum, in Riyom. The Mobile Police lost men in Dares and Kwi, in Bokkos and Riyom. David Babale, an Operation Rainbow operations officer, was killed in an ambush near a military post in Rakok, on the outskirts of Barkin Ladi. Other DSS members were wounded in Kantoma and Alohgom, in Mangu.
The statement also mentions the arrest of Ardo Mahmoud Adams, whom the coalition describes as an alleged leader of Fulani militants and bandits. It did not establish the circumstances of his capture or the status of any court proceedings.
The violence that won't stop
In the background is a series of massacres that Christian communities in Plateau have reported for years. On May 8, alleged Fulani militants attacked Ngbra-Zongo, an Irigwe community in Bassa, and killed 11 Christians, including children, elderly people and two pregnant women; ten survived with gunshot and machete wounds, according to International Christian Concern.
On October 4, the same organization reported 27 Christians killed in seven days in Bokkos, Riyom, Barkin Ladi and Mangu. In April 2025, gunmen attacked Zikke, also in Bassa: Amnesty International condemned the deaths of at least 54 people and called for an investigation into the security failures that allowed it. In May 2025, Amnesty estimated that at least 2,630 people had died in Plateau during the first two years of Nigeria's current administration; that figure covers armed violence in general, not only Christians.
The coalition is not asking to cancel the operations, but to strengthen them. It credits the joint action of the DSS, the Mobile Police, Operation Rainbow and local volunteers with several arrests and a drop in mass attacks. It warned that campaigns by Fulani leaders to remove the DSS state director, Paul Damian, could weaken that work, and urged the federal government to weigh the complaints on evidence and not on political pressure. Protecting Indigenous Christian communities and ensuring that Fulani civilians are treated according to the law are not mutually exclusive tasks.
Concrete questions remain: whether threatened villages receive protection in time, whether displaced people can return, and whether those who killed will be brought to justice.
"Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute" (Psalm 82:3, ESV). From where you are, you can pray for the displaced families of Plateau, for the officers who answer calls for help, and for those who hold the responsibility to investigate and prosecute. And before you share a video that accuses without evidence, wait for the official facts: your neighbor's dignity, whoever they are, depends on that too.
