A Nigerian lawyer and human rights advocate, Franc Utoo, has accused the President Bola Tinubu-led government of deliberately downplaying the massacre and genocide of Christians particularly in the Middle Belt region of the country.
Utoo, himself a survivor of an attack in Benue State made the allegations while addressing the United States Congress on Thursday, where he raised concerns over the alleged payment of of $9 million in unbudgeted Nigerian taxpayers’ funds to hire foreign lobbyists, instead of addressing the humanitarian crisis facing thousands of displaced victims of violence.
Speaking during the congressional session, Utoo, a former Principal Special Assistant to the Governor of Benue State between 2020 and 2023, said he was testifying not only as a lawyer and policy advocate but also as a direct victim and survivor of attacks on Christian communities.
“I come from the epicenter of the genocide of Christians in Nigeria, because I’m one of the biggest victims. My tribe is called the TIV ethnic group from Benue State. We are the biggest ethnic group of the Christian faith in the Middle Belt of Nigeria and in the entire northern part of Nigeria,” he said.
Utoo told the U.S. lawmakers that thus far, he has 13 relatives who are now living in Interny Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps following violent attacks allegedly carried out by Fulani militias in his community.
“We’re facing existential threat in the hands of Fulani ethnic militia, who have committed themselves to wipe our people off the face of the earth. They started this journey in 1804 when they staged the Jihad. And in their quest to progress southwards of Nigeria, our people, the TIV ethnic group, stopped their progression.”
He dismissed claims that the killings are the result of communal clashes as being portrayed by the government, insisting that Muslims reportedly killed in the conflict are “collateral damage,” similar to how Arab Muslims were among the victims of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.
Giving a personal account, Utoo told the US Congressmen that his village was attacked on the night of June 13, 2025, during which 278 people, mostly his relatives, were killed in what he described as the deadliest single-night attack in Nigeria in 2025.
“Among these are my nephews, my nieces, my siblings, my uncles, my aunties who went right away to Nigeria and met the woman whose husband was killed and five of her children. That’s my cousin. That’s my cousin.
“These are not just numbers, these are not just disposables or expendables. These are family relatives. For every number you hear in Nigeria, these are my cousins, these are my siblings. As I talk to you right now, my father’s youngest son, my youngest sibling, is just three years old. He’s in the IDP camp.
“And this morning, he was fed with just a pack of noodles. They were given a pack of noodles, four of them, to share a single pack of noodles. Four people. A single pack of noodles. My direct sibling, youngest sibling, is three years old. My father’s two wives are in the IDP camp because my father was polygamous.
“I have 13 siblings, they are all in the IDP camp. My father was active in local parades to the children of his dead siblings. So he was a father to about 42 other kids. They are all in the IDP camp. My father was the village head of a village which was the epicenter of the June attack.”
Utoo further accused the Nigerian government of criminalising victims while allegedly shielding perpetrators, citing the case of two men from a neighbouring community who were arraigned before a Federal High Court in Abuja for terrorism after killing 12 cattle in self-defence, while no arrests have been made over the killing of hundreds of villagers.
“Today, instead of the Nigerian government to focus on solving this issue, they are spending millions of dollars of unbudgeted funds, taxpayers’ money, for outtakes to the lobbyists. That is exactly what is happening.
“That money will have solved the issue. The $9 million will have solved the issue of what is on ground. As they continue to launder their image, our people are still in the IDP camp with no plan for them to go back home to their ancestral lands.
“Their ancestral lands are right now in the hands of the Fulanis. Finally, as I conclude, this same money in Nigeria, two of my kinsmen from a neighbouring community called Dautu, two of them, Tekendi Ashuwa, 46 years old, and Aledi, 44 years old, were arraigned in the federal high court Abuja today for terrorism at the federal high court Abuja.”
He appealed to the United States to use its moral authority to defend persecuted Christians in Nigeria, noting that key decisions were being weighed following Nigeria’s designation under the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommendations.
“You are the conscience of the free world. The might of America is not in the armed forces. It is not just in the military or its wealth. But it is in its moral authority. And you use your moral authority to defend us,” Utoo concluded.
