{"id":1049531,"date":"2021-11-23T18:59:11","date_gmt":"2021-11-23T23:59:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1049531"},"modified":"2021-11-23T18:59:17","modified_gmt":"2021-11-23T23:59:17","slug":"nigerian-journalist-arrested-after-reporting-on-attacks-against-christians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nigerian-journalist-arrested-after-reporting-on-attacks-against-christians\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigerian Journalist Arrested After Reporting on Attacks Against Christians"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fnigerian-journalist-arrested-after-reporting-on-attacks-against-christians%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1049531&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/32706668_10156564728714235_3301650843446542336_n-640x335-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">A Nigerian Christian journalist has been imprisoned following his reporting of attacks on Christians in Nigeria\u2019s Middle Belt and his criticism of the government\u2019s response, the Barnabas Fund reported Monday.<\/p>\n<p>Officials of Kaduna State arrested <em>Epoch Times<\/em> journalist Luka Binniyat November 4 and charged him with transmitting electronic information known \u201cto be false\u201d under the nation\u2019s Cybercrimes Act.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>The charge is a federal offence carrying a penalty of three years in prison and Binniyat has not been offered bail and must be tried in a higher court.<\/p>\n<p>A local source told the Barnabas Fund that Binniyat\u2019s arrest \u201cis aimed at silencing any dissenting voice and intimidating both Luka and the southern Kaduna communities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As Breitbart News <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/national-security\/2021\/07\/06\/gunmen-abduct-140-students-from-christian-school-in-nigeria\/\">reported<\/a>, last July unidentified gunmen kidnapped some 140 Christian students from the Bethel Baptist High School in Kaduna State.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>At the time, protesters denounced the failure of civil authorities to protect their children from the bandits and Muslim Fulani raiders who have been carrying out the kidnappings with impunity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis government has abandoned the people of Kaduna,\u201d said Mustapha Kumbe, the father of one of the kidnapped students. \u201cWe will continue to protest until our children come back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday is a day of mourning, as we grieve over what is the most serious attack and greatest tragedy to impact the Baptist community in Nigeria,\u201d said Elijah Brown, CEO of the Baptist World Alliance. \u201cI echo the words of a Baptist leader from Kaduna, \u2018Our church is in serious pain.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Complaints of government inaction in the face of ongoing attacks on Christians in Kaduna State have been voiced for years.<\/p>\n<p>In 2020, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) <a href=\"https:\/\/dailypost.ng\/2020\/01\/14\/killings-in-nigeria-trump-pope-francis-told-to-call-buhari-to-order\/\">appealed<\/a> to President Donald Trump and Pope Francis to intercede with their government to stop the \u201cgenocidal killings of Christians.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>Spokesmen for the group said they had made the appeal following a string of well-coordinated attacks on Christians by armed Islamists in Kaduna state.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSince Nigerian State and the Kaduna state government are not treating these threats as a national emergency we have decided to let the world know the true state of things and we are happy that some organizations have made similar findings,\u201d said a statement jointly signed by the HURIWA National Coordinator Emmanuel Onwubiko and National Media Affairs Director, Zainab Yusuf.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cOn the last count virtually all major Christian denominations in Kaduna State have witnessed dozens of attacks just as dozens of pastors have died in the cause of these targeted armed invasions and kidnapping,\u201d the statement read. \u201cWe are not accusing the Kaduna state government of involvements but we are worried about the conspiratorial silence to these series of attacks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The rights group also expressed its deep concern that Christians are not represented in Kaduna state government, since the governor, deputy governor, and State House of Assembly speaker are all Muslims, despite constitutional provisions that members from different ethno-religious communities be represented in strategic posts.<\/p>\n<p>The group insisted that this state of affairs is no accident, but rather \u201cthe Kaduna state government and the office of the Nigerian President are deeply entrenched in the selective appointments of mostly Moslems as holders of virtually all strategic positions.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B4\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>The effect of this is to consign \u201cmillions of Christians to the inglorious position of second-class citizens,\u201d the statement said, making them \u201ccannon fodder for the spiraling armed attacks by armed Islamists masquerading as herdsmen, kidnappers and bandits.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the fuel that has ignited widespread mistreatment of Christians,\u201d the group asserts. \u201cThe incessant attacks by armed Islamists targeting only pastors; Christian schools and clerics of Christian denomination have become a national emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For his part, Binniyat has repeatedly challenged the Kaduna State government on the issue of security as well as the targeted killing of Christians in southern Kaduna.<\/p>\n<p>Binniyat\u2019s arrest was tied directly to a story he wrote on October 29 titled: \u201cIn Nigeria, Police Decry Massacres as \u2018Wicked\u2019 But Make No Arrests.\u201d In his piece, Binniyat cited Senator Danjuma Laah, who criticized Kaduna\u2019s Commissioner of Internal Security and Home Affairs Samuel Aruwan for concealing facts concerning a \u201cgenocide against Christians in the southern Kaduna State.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Binniyat has \u201cwritten a lot about the plight of the people under the persistent attacks by Islamist Fulani militia groups, and has challenged the narratives of the Kaduna State government on the issues of security and the killings in southern Kaduna,\u201d the Barnabas Fund reported, citing their local source.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"twitter-follow-button\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/tdwilliamsrome?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" data-show-count=\"false\">Follow @tdwilliamsrome<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Nigerian Christian journalist has been imprisoned following his reporting of attacks on Christians in Nigeria\u2019s Middle Belt and his criticism of the government\u2019s response, the Barnabas Fund reported Monday. &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1049531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1049531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1049531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1049531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1049531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1049531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1049531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}