The Chief Imam of the University of Abuja and leader of the Da’wah Front of Nigeria, Prof. Taofiq AbdulAzeez, has challenged the narrative of a systematic “Christian genocide” in Nigeria, following the reported abduction of Muslim worshippers during Juma’at prayers in four communities in Borgu Local Government Area of Niger State.
AbdulAzeez, in a statement on Saturday, described the attack on Muslim worshippers as a development that demanded serious interrogation of claims about the religious identity and motives of armed groups responsible for violence across the country.
The cleric also challenged the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs to urgently investigate the incident, establish the identities of the perpetrators and demand accountability for the attack.
According to him, the reported invasion of Dekara, Sabon Gida, Masaka and Gidan Zana, where worshippers were reportedly abducted during Friday prayers, raised fundamental questions about the tendency to attribute criminal violence in Nigeria solely to religious motivations.
The attack, according to a report by PLATFORM TIMES, occurred at about 2pm on Friday, with the assailants reportedly invading mosques and abducting an unspecified number of worshippers.
The village head of Dekara, Umar Abubakar, confirmed the incident, saying the exact number of victims remained unknown.
He said Dekara Central Mosque recorded the highest number of abductions before the attackers moved to the neighbouring communities.
Abubakar also disclosed that the attackers destroyed the community’s solar-powered communication network, making it difficult for residents to coordinate a response or communicate effectively after the incident.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, while the identities and motives of the perpetrators remained unknown as of press time.
It was against this backdrop that AbdulAzeez questioned attempts to frame Nigeria’s security crisis exclusively through the prism of attacks on Christians.
The cleric argued that the killing or abduction of Muslims while observing Juma’at prayers should equally attract national and international attention, particularly from organisations and individuals making claims about religious persecution in Nigeria.
He said there was an urgent need for credible investigation rather than assumptions about the religious affiliation of perpetrators.
AbdulAzeez further argued that if investigations establish that the perpetrators belonged to another religious background, such a finding would have implications for broader claims that every major act of violence involving Christians or Muslims was necessarily motivated by religious hatred.
He, however, stressed the need for the identities of the attackers to be established through evidence, rather than speculation.
The cleric therefore called on the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs to take up the matter, investigate the circumstances surrounding the attack and, where necessary, protest what he described as the killing and abduction of innocent Muslim worshippers.
He said religious bodies had a moral responsibility to defend victims of violence irrespective of their faith and to demand justice whenever worshippers were attacked while exercising their fundamental right to worship.
The latest incident has also renewed concerns over the vulnerability of rural communities in Niger State, where residents have continued to face insecurity and abductions.
The Niger State Commissioner for Homeland Security, Maurice Magaji, said he had not been briefed about the incident when contacted.
The police also had yet to issue an official statement on the attack as of press time.
Meanwhile, the cleric’s intervention has opened a fresh debate over the competing narratives surrounding insecurity in Nigeria and the need for security agencies to identify the perpetrators of attacks before religious or ethnic labels are attached to them.
While claims of religiously motivated violence remain a contentious issue in Nigeria, the Borgu attack underscores the need for transparent investigations capable of establishing who carried out particular attacks, who the victims were and what motivated the perpetrators.
For AbdulAzeez, the reported abduction of Muslims from mosques during Juma’at prayers should not be treated as an isolated incident but as a test of the consistency of Nigeria’s response to violence against worshippers, regardless of their faith.
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