SW News: Researchers from the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety) claim that there is a strong suspicion that the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari was involved in shady land transactions with Islamic jihadists to seize property from Christians in the West African nation.

In their most recent report, the Intersociety researchers have expressed concerns over indiscriminate land purchases in eastern Nigeria by proxies for jihadist Fulani herders in the name of official development plans. The disputed land purchases were traced back to the Miyatti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria and the Fulani Nationality Movement.

The report's authors assert that the military and other security leaders are suspected of enforcing the Fulani land purchases and the frequently violent appropriation. The study team led by Emeka Umeagbalasi said the transactions are done under the fear of extortion, assault, and invasion.

Intersociety in its special investigative report described the plight of Nigerian Christians as deeply disheartening. The report said that it is shocking to note that the genocidal footprints of ex-president Muhammad Buhari who ruled from 29th May 2015 to 29th May 2023 have continued to hunt down Christians and non-Muslims. This includes seizing their ancestral lands, houses, places of worship and learning, and other properties belonging to them.

The study shows that the grisly, state-protected, and conspiratorial Jihadist attacks have left 31,700 defenseless Christians dead between June 2015 and June 2023 and 53,750 were hacked to death since the 2009 Boko Haram uprising. It was also found that no fewer than 18,200 churches, 1,000 traditional religious sanctuaries and 800 Synagogues, and 2,200 Christian schools have been burned down or wantonly destroyed-with 1,100 Christian communities uprooted, 50m Christians forced out of their ancestral homes and lands into displacement and homelessness.

Hundreds of Christians have been forcefully converted to Islam while tens of thousands of non-menopausal Christian women have become victims of rape or sexual abuse or enslavement. Not less than 15m Christian IDPs/refugees have been generated and forced into internal or regional/international border homelessness-with Benue State being the worst hit accounting for at least 2.5m Christian IDPs.

The report also found it shocking and alarming to note that in the last eighteen days of June 2023, at least 350 defenseless Christians and non-Muslim others have been slaughtered by Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and their allied Jihadist Fulani Bandits who originated from Zamfara State as Zamfara Bandits 2011-2013. In the latest butcheries under review, Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and their allied Jihadist Fulani Bandits accounted for not less than 230 Christian deaths.

Joining the list of anti-Christian butchers are jihadist elements within the Nigerian military and police and their commanders in Eastern Nigeria. They accounted for 30% of the killings by killing not less than 100 unarmed and defenseless Judeo-Christian-traditionalist Easterners particularly in Imo State within the space of the last forty days or 21st May to 30th June 2023.