A human rights organisation, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Intersociety, has faulted the invitation extended to President Bola Tinubu by the Vatican for the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV.
The group alleged that over 15,640 people, mostly Christians, were killed and 14,600 abducted by bandits under the President’s watch.
The group claimed that the deaths were, on average of 7,820 deaths per year, 650 per month, 22 per day and one per hour
Intersociety also estimated that 14 600 Christians “were abducted on average of 7,300 per year, 608 per month, 20 per day and almost one per hour in the country.”
The Chairman of Intersociety, Comrade Emeka Umeagbalasi, in a statement, said that out of the estimated 14, 600 abducted Christians, 1,460, ten percent died in their captors’ dens.
“Findings arising from our several reports as well as others generated from other credible sources have clearly shown that in the past two years of Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s watch and inaction, as Nigeria’s President, estimated 15,640 Christians have been hacked to death by the country’s Islamic Jihadists; on average of 7,820 deaths per year, 650 per month, 22 per day and one per hour.
“During the same period, too, an estimated 14, 600 defenseless Christians were abducted on the ground of their Christian Faith by Jihadists across Nigeria; on average of 7,300 persons per year, 608 per month, 20 per day and almost one per hour, and 10% of them died in their abductors’ captivity.
“Importantly clarified is the fact that thousands of moderate Muslims were also separately killed or abducted by the jihadists during the period. Further breakdown shows that out of the estimated 8,200 Christians hacked to death from January to December 2023, no fewer than 5,400 died between June and December 2023 under the watch of the present government.
“In 2024 not less than 6,500 Christians were hacked to death by Jihadists, and 7000 abducted. In the outgoing first five months of 2025, not less than 2,170 Christians have been hacked to death and 2,300 others abducted: totalling at least 15,640 Christian deaths and 14,600 abductions in the past two years (May 2023-May 2025) under the watch of this government”.
The group therefore rejected the papal invitation extended to President Ahmed Bola Tinubu to attend the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV, the 267th Pope of the Catholic Church, saying, “With this number of deaths and abductions, we don’t see the reason for the invitation to him or anyone in the government”
“The global Catholics, numbering more than 1.4 billion has recorded serious denominational and religious retardation, under-growth and under development in Nigeria since the Boko Haram Jihadist uprising in July 2009 and the Jihadist Fulani State Power Conquest since June 2015 to date.
“President Tinubu and his predecessor Muhammad Buhari had sat under the situations of inaction, inability, unwillingness since then as the country’s leaders and watched as the country entered the World Hall
where one Christian is hacked to death on an hourly basis.
“Nigeria under them has also unbeatably recorded the highest number of destroyed or burnt down churches and Christian schools in the world”, Intersociety claimed.
