US lawmaker faults Tuggar’s claim that only 177 Christians were killed in five years

Riley Moore, a member of the United States House of Representatives, has rejected a claim by Nigeria’s foreign affairs minister, Yusuf Tuggar, that only 177 Christians were killed in the country over the last five years.

Tuggar made the remark during an appearance on Piers Morgan’s show, where he sought to counter allegations of a Christian genocide in Nigeria, challenge casualty figures, and provide context to the country’s complex security situation.

On the programme, aired on Tuesday, Morgan cited data from the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), which alleges that more than 50,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria since 2009 and 18,000 churches destroyed.

Tuggar dismissed the figures as inaccurate and criticised what he described as a religious framing of insecurity in the country. He said the Nigerian government does not record deaths according to religious identity, insisting that victims are seen as Nigerians first.

When Morgan pressed him for figures, the minister stated that only 177 Christians had been killed and 102 churches attacked within the past five years.

Speaking at a congressional hearing in Washington DC on Thursday, Moore said he was perplexed by the wide disparity in the figures and concerned that the Nigerian delegation currently in the US had also disputed the casualty numbers.

“I recently saw the foreign minister was in some interview, I think it was Piers Morgan, and it was the same thing when they (the delegation) came here and some of us spoke to them, just disputing these numbers,” Moore said.

“I think the foreign minister said in the last five years only 177 Christians have been killed. I don’t think there’s anybody who believes that, and I don’t think that it’s necessarily constructive on their part to try to downplay what’s happening here.”

Moore added that it was possible the figure cited by Tuggar could apply only to recent months, not five years.

The congressman said Nigeria has an opportunity to “strengthen, deepen and broaden” its relationship with the United States, noting that such progress would be possible “in coordination and cooperation” with the US government.