{"id":985393,"date":"2021-11-08T14:59:03","date_gmt":"2021-11-08T19:59:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=985393"},"modified":"2021-11-08T14:59:06","modified_gmt":"2021-11-08T19:59:06","slug":"nigeria-jails-epoch-times-reporter-covering-jihadist-massacres","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/nigeria-jails-epoch-times-reporter-covering-jihadist-massacres\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria Jails Epoch Times Reporter Covering Jihadist Massacres"},"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\">16<\/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%2Fnigeria-jails-epoch-times-reporter-covering-jihadist-massacres%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=985393&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--><p class=\"subheading\">The anti-communist newspaper&nbsp;<em>Epoch Times<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/mkt_breakingnews\/epoch-times-reporter-jailed-in-nigeria_4090250.html\">denounced<\/a> this weekend the arrest of Luka Binniyat, a reporter for the publication based in Nigeria who focused on Christian persecution there at the hands of Fulani jihadists.<\/p>\n<p>Binniyat has been <a href=\"https:\/\/barnabasfund.org\/news\/twelve-christians-killed-in-attacks-by-suspected-fulani-militants-in-kad\/\">active<\/a> as a representative of civil society in his native Kaduna state for years and previously wrote for&nbsp;<em>Vanguard<\/em>, one of Nigeria\u2019s largest newspapers. The last <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/in-nigeria-police-decry-massacres-as-wicked-but-make-no-arrests_4075998.html\">article<\/a> he published at the <em>Epoch Times<\/em>,&nbsp;\u201cIn Nigeria, Police Decry Massacres as \u2018Wicked\u2019 but Make No Arrests,\u201d Binniyat quoted local lawmakers condemning the government of President Muhammadu Buhari for failing to act to protect Christians in areas that Fulani jihadists target.<\/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&nbsp;<em>Epoch Times<\/em> covers global affairs but has most often faced criminal attacks or police pressure for its coverage of China. The newspaper\u2019s Hong Kong offices have suffered multiple attacks, including arson, presumably in response to its support for the anti-communist democracy movement that erupted there in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>The Chinese Communist Party has developed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/africa\/2019\/08\/05\/local-media-chinese-increasing-unemployment-nigeria\/\">close ties<\/a> to Nigeria through its \u201cBelt and Road\u201d colonization initiative, but no evidence currently suggests Beijing played a role in Binniyat\u2019s detention.<\/p>\n<p>The Fulani jihadists, often referred to as Fulani herdsmen, have terrorized Christian communities in north-central Nigeria for years. While some observers suggest that the violence began as tension between the mostly-Muslim Fulani herdsmen and mostly-Christian farmers in Kaduna and neighboring states, in the past decade, it has erupted into a campaign of jihadist persecution against any Christian communities that the attackers consider present in the territory they consider theirs. In 2018, death tolls <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/national-security\/2018\/07\/08\/nigerias-fulani-jihadis-grow-deadlier-than-boko-haram-killing-hundreds-of-christians-in-days-extreme-content-warning\/\">found<\/a> the Fulani herdsmen deadlier than Boko Haram, the jihadist organization affiliated with the Islamic State that is most active in northeastern Borno state.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<div id=\"attachment_18655034\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" readability=\"37\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Fulani.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18655034\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Fulani.jpeg\" alt=\"A woman carries plastic drum salvaged from burnt shop after deadly ethnic clashes between the northern Fulani and southern Yoruba traders at Shasha Market in Ibadan, southwest Nigeria, on February 15, 2021. - Nigerian President vowed to protect all religious and ethnic groups in the country after deadly clashes erupted between different communities at a market in the southwest over the weekend. Long-standing rivalry over access to land and resources between northern Fulani herders and southern Yoruba farmers are behind renewed ethnic tensions across the south. (Pius Utomi Ekpei\/AFP via Getty Images)\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">A woman carries a plastic drum salvaged from a burnt shop after deadly ethnic clashes between the northern Fulani and southern Yoruba traders at Shasha Market in Ibadan, southwest Nigeria, on February 15, 2021. (Pius Utomi Ekpei\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Fulani attacks often involve the burning down of entire villages, hacking civilians to death with machetes, and other atrocities.<\/p>\n<p>Buhari, an ethnic Fulani himself who became president in 2015 after a stint as military dictator in the 1980s, won the election that year by vowing to eradicate Boko Haram. Buhari has done little since, however, to deter jihadist assaults in the north of the country.<\/p>\n<p>Police detained Binniyat, according to the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/mkt_breakingnews\/epoch-times-reporter-jailed-in-nigeria_4090250.html\"><em>Epoch Times<\/em><\/a>, on November 4, and have yet to charge him with any crime. The newspaper cited a friend, Reuben Buhari, who said that he believes police will charge him with the crimes of \u201cinjurious falsehood and incitement,\u201d likely in response to his coverage of Fulani terrorism in the newspaper. Buhari said he believed formal charges would drop on Monday.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_17577074\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" readability=\"34\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Buhari.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-17577074 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Buhari.jpg\" alt=\"Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari speaks during a visit to the Maimalari Barracks in Maiduguri on June 17, 2021. (Photo by Audu Marte \/ AFP) (Photo by AUDU MARTE\/AFP via Getty Images)\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari speaks during a visit to the Maimalari Barracks in Maiduguri on June 17, 2021. (Audu Marte\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Binniyat\u2019s last <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/in-nigeria-police-decry-massacres-as-wicked-but-make-no-arrests_4075998.html\">article<\/a> before his arrest detailed the silence of federal government officials in response to the mass killing of dozens of Christians in Kaduna at the hands of Fulani terrorists. Kaduna&nbsp;Senator Danjuma Laah accused the Buhari government in the article of covering up a \u201cgenocide\u201d by dismissing the attacks as a \u201cclash\u201d \u2013 a term that would imply the Christians were also engaging in violence, for which no evidence exists.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf it is a clash, why were no herdsmen among those killed and injured?\u201d Sen. Laah asked in the article.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>Binniyat himself described the latest Fulani attack in the text as a \u201cbrutal murder by a militia armed with assault rifles.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The journalist has not hidden his disdain for the Buhari government online, describing the Buhari government in one post on Twitter as a \u201cdream for opportunists, rogues in [government], con artists and crooks of all kinds of shades.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\" readability=\"12.453074433657\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Nigeria is the ideal dream for opportunists, rogues in govt, con artists and crooks of all kinds of shades. The best, the upright and productive minds service the aforementioned as &#8216;workers&#8217; or assistants.<br \/>That&#8217;s a Prof of law is deputy to WAEC cert forger. <br \/>Shame!<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Luka Binniyat (@Kindusluka) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Kindusluka\/status\/1408165097793626115?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 24, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In addition to accusing the government of turning a blind eye to the mass murder of Christians and allowing crime to thrive in the country, he identified and named wealthy Nigerians on his social media account, in one instance, accusing a woman of \u201cserially abusing\u201d domestic help and publishing videos showing the alleged victims\u2019 scars.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\" readability=\"12.652173913043\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">This is Janet, a preteen house help to Mrs Ldutsi Yusuf, an FRSC officer in KD<br \/>The madam is said to be an arrogant relations of Babachir, whose names she throws around to intimidate neighbours. She &amp; her kids have been serially abusing Janet, including this.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/JusticeForJanet?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#JusticeForJanet<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/QHZ8uHtKXh\">pic.twitter.com\/QHZ8uHtKXh<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Luka Binniyat (@Kindusluka) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Kindusluka\/status\/1413163794315022341?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 8, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B4\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThe recent arrest of Luka Binniyat\u2014after he reported on the massacres for an American media outlet\u2014continues a systematic government cover-up of Fulani atrocities against peaceful Christian villagers,\u201d the Hudson Institute\u2019s Nina Shea told the&nbsp;<em>Epoch Times<\/em> in response to his arrest. \u201cThis is further evidence that an ethnic-religious genocide is being carried out in northern Nigeria and is being done so with official collusion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Binnayat was previously <a href=\"https:\/\/guardian.ng\/news\/kaduna-court-orders-journalist-remanded-in-prison-custody\/\">arrested<\/a> in 2017 for \u201cinjurious falsehood\u201d for an article in&nbsp;<em>Vanguard<\/em>&nbsp;covering the mass killing of students at the&nbsp;College of Education, Gidan-Waya.<\/p>\n<p>His current publication has also struggled in hostile settings, most prominently in response to its coverage of China. In 2019, at the height of the anti-communist protests in Hong Kong, unidentified attackers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/asia\/2019\/11\/20\/masked-attackers-burn-printing-warehouse-of-pro-democracy-newspaper-epoch-times\/\">attempted<\/a> to burn down the&nbsp;<em>Epoch Times<\/em> printing house, presumably to prevent it from publishing new editions. Two years later, after China imposed an illegal \u201cnational security law\u201d on the autonomous region, unknown attackers again targeted the newspaper, breaking into its offices with sledgehammers and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/asia\/2021\/04\/14\/watch-sledgehammer-wielding-thugs-ransack-epoch-times-hong-kong-printing-plant\/\">destroying<\/a>&nbsp;a significant amount of its workspace.<\/p>\n<p>Also that year, unidentified attackers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/asia\/2021\/05\/13\/epoch-times-reporter-suffers-baseball-bat-attack-in-hong-kong\/\">assaulted<\/a>&nbsp;<em>Epoch Times<\/em> journalist Sarah Liang on the streets of Hong Kong, an incident similar to what anti-communist activists had&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/asia\/2019\/10\/16\/hammer-wielding-thugs-beat-hong-kong-pro-democracy-activist\/\">endured<\/a> in the city.<\/p>\n<p><em>Follow Frances Martel on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/francesimartel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/francesimartel\/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1636451854470000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGAzB3xw79DgAyerokeD-pH5ZoYyA\">Facebook<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/francesmartel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external\" data-saferedirecturl=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/twitter.com\/francesmartel&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1636451854470000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH7VQggRfIuwfTnMwAuQz3dTEe2rA\">Twitter.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The anti-communist newspaper\u00a0Epoch Times denounced this weekend the arrest of Luka Binniyat, a reporter for the publication based in Nigeria who focused on Christian persecution there at the hands of &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"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-985393","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\/985393","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\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=985393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/985393\/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=985393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=985393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=985393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}