The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has called on Bishop Mathew Hasan Kukah to apologise to Nigerians for what it described as repeated false allegations that only Christians are being killed by terrorists and bandits in the country.
The demand followed the abduction of 40 Muslims from a mosque in Gidan Turbe village, Tsafe Local Government Area of Zamfara State, on Monday, September 15, 2025, and the kidnapping of a Catholic bishop, Rev Father Wilfred Ezemba of St Paul’s Catholic Church, Kogi State, on the same day.
In a statement signed by its Executive Director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, on Tuesday, 16th September, 2025, MURIC stressed that criminal activities in Nigeria have no religious or ethnic colouration, insisting that both Muslims and Christians are victims of the same menace.
Quoting past incidents, Akintola cited the killings of 50 Muslims in Malunfashi, Katsina State, in August 2025, 60 Muslims in Sabon Birni, Sokoto State, in May 2020, and more than 60 Muslims in a Sokoto marketplace in October 2021.
“These massacres further amplify the misleading nature of allegations laid before the US Congress and other platforms by Bishop Mathew Hasan Kuka, suggesting that only Christians are being targeted,” Akintola said.
The Islamic rights body dismissed such claims as “spiritual masturbation” and “acrobatic religiosity,” urged Nigerians to recognise that terrorists and bandits prey on all citizens regardless of faith.
“The abduction of 40 Muslims in Zamfara and the kidnapping of a bishop in Kogi on the same day have exposed the lies. Crime has no religion. We are all victims,” MURIC added.
The organisation concluded by demanding an “unreserved apology” from Bishop Kukah for what it called his long-standing misleading narrative.
