The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has called on Bishop Mathew Hasan Kukah of the Sokoto Diocese to apologise over what it described as misleading allegations of Islamisation and claims that only Christians are being targeted in Nigeria’s insecurity crisis.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, September 16, 2025, the Executive Director of MURIC, Professor Ishaq Akintola, stressed that crime in the country has no religious or ethnic colour, insisting that both Muslims and Christians have fallen victim to terrorists and bandits.
Citing recent incidents, Akintola noted that gunmen abducted 40 Muslims from a mosque in Gidan Turbe village, Tsafe LGA of Zamfara State, on September 15, while Rev. Father Wilfred Ezemba, a Catholic priest in Kogi State, was also kidnapped the same day.
“These two sad incidents underline the fact that terrorists and bandits target no particular religion or ethnic group. What they are after is ransom. Terror has no faith, and crime has no colour,” he said.
He recalled multiple massacres of Muslims in Sokoto, Katsina, and other states in recent years, adding that such tragedies expose what he described as “false narratives” of Islamisation.
MURIC described those who attribute terror attacks to religious motives as “anarchists, alarmists, and entrepreneurs of falsehood,” and urged Nigerians to resist being misled by divisive rhetoric.
“We therefore call on Bishop Kukah to tender an unreserved apology to Nigerians for misleading them for so long,” Akintola added.
