NAIJAFEED

Thursday, June 4, 2026

Four sentenced to death for killing worshippers at Catholic church in Nigeria

A court in Nigeria has sentenced four men to death for attacking a church in the south-western Ondo state in 2022 in a case which sent shockwaves across the nation.

Forty-one worshippers were killed and more than 100 others injured when they opened fire at the St Francis Catholic church in the town of Owo during a Pentecost service.

The court in the capital Abuja also sentenced the men - Idris Abdulmalik Omeiza, Al Qasim Idris, Jamiu Abdulmalik and Abdulhaleem Idris - to 20 years in prison for belonging to a terrorist group.

Presidential assent is required before any death sentence is carried out in Nigeria. There have not been any executions in the country for several years.

Judge Emeka Nwite, who presided over the case, said the evidence presented against them was "neither shaken nor contradicted during cross examination".

He had ordered an accelerated hearing after the high-profile trial commenced in August 2025.

In his judgement, Justice Nwite said that the prosecution had proved their case beyond reasonable doubt as they had brought before the court witnesses who saw the attack, including one who testified to recognising two of the defendants as attackers.

"Hence this court finds the first to fourth defendants guilty of all nine counts," he added.

One of the witnesses the court heard from was a woman who had her legs amputated from the knees, and had lost her left eye as a result of a dynamite explosion which the attackers had detonated.

The nine counts included joining a terror group, and planning and carrying out killings.

Prosecutor Ayodeji Adedipe said: "Justice has been served, justice has been done to the deceased who were murdered in cold blood."

The men's defence lawyer said they would appeal against the sentence.

During the trial, the defendants said they had been tortured, including being hung from the ceiling, beaten countless times, and using electric shocks on their genitals.

A fifth defendant, Momoh Otuho Abubakar, was discharged and acquitted by the court due to insufficient evidence against him.

He was accused of having financed the attack, by allegedly receiving 800,000 naira (£440; $590) twice from another suspect - who is still at large - and then disbursing the funds to the attackers.

During cross examination, however, Abubakar said the money in his account was the proceeds of his farming business, as well as activities from his cooperative society. He denied that the four other defendants were beneficiaries of the money.

Since the Owo attack, Nigeria has witnessed many more attacks on churches across the country as it continues to grapple with rising insecurity.

US President Donald Trump has accused Nigeria of failing to protect its Christian population from jihadist attacks.

On Christmas Day, the US hit two camps run by a jihadist group in north-western Nigeria, and threatened more if attacks continued.

Claims of a genocide against Nigeria's Christians have been circulating for some time in right-wing US circles, but organisations monitoring political violence in Nigeria say most victims of the jihadist groups are Muslims.

The Nigerian government also denies that Christians are being persecuted in the country.

By Chukwunaeme Obiejesi, BBC

Gunmen kidnap 7 students from school in northwestern Nigeria

Gunmen raided an off-campus residence in northwest Nigeria and kidnapped seven students, police said.

The attack occurred early Wednesday in the Kaura Namoda area of conflict-battered Zamfara state, police spokesman Yazid Abubakar said in a statement. One of the students escaped and was in custody.

The police spokesman said it wasn’t clear where the students were taken but efforts were underway to rescue the remaining six.

Zamfara has been a hotspot for armed gangs that carry out kidnappings for ransom, with abductions of students increasing in recent years across the country.

A tally by local news outlet Premium Times found that at least 1,900 students have been kidnapped from 20 schools since the 2014 mass abduction of over 200 schoolgirls from Chibok in Borno state.

Wednesday, June 3, 2026

Video - Nigerian manufacturers struggle with rising electricity costs

Due to an unreliable power grid, many companies rely on alternative energy sources to keep their factories running. However, rising fuel and gas prices are further increasing operating costs and squeezing profitability. Some businesses have been forced to scale down production or suspend operations altogether.

CGTN Africa

Nigeria housing crisis looming as cement prices hit NGN15,000

The Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria (REDAN) has warned of a looming housing crisis as soaring cement prices threaten national homeownership.

According to REDAN President Oba Akintoye Adeoye, a 50kg bag of cement has surged from NGN7500 (US$5.49) in late 2025 to between NGN11,500 (US$8.41) and NGN15,000 (US$10.97). This rapid spike is heavily disrupting construction projects and intensifying financial strain on developers already battling inflation and exchange-rate volatility.

Because cement dictates overall construction costs, these current prices make housing delivery unsustainable.

REDAN is urgently calling for Federal Government intervention to stabilise the building materials value chain and protect ongoing developments.

CN CEMNET

Religious divide in Nigeria worsens conflict during drought

Across the Sahel region, where many Fulani herders have historically lived, rising temperatures, drought and desertification have reduced grazing land. Now, pastoralists are increasingly driving their stock beyond traditional ranges and coming into conflict with sedentary farming communities.

The WZB Berlin Social Science Center has drawn on over two decades of data from across Nigeria to examine links between drought patterns, conflict incidents, and the religious composition of local communities.

Sociology professor Ruud Koopmans, who co-authored the study, said the data challenged the perception that climate change was the main driver of violence. Instead, he pointed to religious divisions as the decisive factor.

Religion influences violent conflict in Sahel

"Where these Muslim pastoralists meet farmers, who are in majority Christian, that is where we have the largest number of violent confrontations," says Koopmans, who is based at Berlin's Humboldt University.

He added: "Where there is this religious divide, the conflict is further exacerbated by droughts."

The Fulani are a primarily Muslim-cattle owning people that have historically lived across what is now Nigeria, Niger, Mali, and other West African nations. Many in Nigeria have adopted the Hausa language, and used to be far more nomadic than today. Depletion of cattle herds has led some Fulani to become sedentary.

In the past, Fulani herders and farming communities have suffered killings and property destruction during clashes.

Researchers used a survey in Kaduna State, north-western Nigeria, to establish that Christian respondents were more likely to attribute conflict over grazing lands to religious causes, and harbor greater distrust of Muslim Fulani. Meanwhile, Muslim respondents were more likely to cite droughts and competition for resources as the cause for conflict.

The researchers say similar dynamics could apply beyond Nigeria, including in parts of the Sahel where climate stress and social divisions overlap.

In their report, the researchers call for policies to address water and land management, but also for early warning systems and community-based conflict mediation in religiously mixed regions. Such measures,they suggest, could help to prevent environmental pressures from turning into violent conflict.

Religious tensions in northern Nigeria

According to Koopmans, religious tensions have intensified since the late 1990s. He cited the introduction of Sharia law in parts of northern Nigeria, resistance in regions such as Nigeria's Middle Belt, and the rise of the jihadist group Boko Haram as factors that had deepened mistrust between communities.

These developments, he argued, had also revived older historical fears, particularly among Christian communities.

Clashes were more likely in the Middle Belt,where Muslim herders and predominantly Christian farming communities interacted, he said. Conflict is less likely in northern regions where pastoralists and sedentary communities are mostly Muslim.

According to the WZB study, shared religious identity can help limit escalation, with conflicting parties able to appeal to religious authorities respected by both sides, making dispute resolution more likely and reducing the risk of violence.

"When both nomads and farmers are Muslim, they are also more likely to respect common religious norms concerning property and the use of violence. There is a clear spiritual disbenefit associated with harming people who share the same faith," the study said.

Fulani militancy driving religious violence

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has identified armed Fulani groups as being among the most prominent non-state actors behind religious violence in Nigeria. It says an "estimated 30,000 Fulani militants" likely operate across Nigeria.

"While these militants do not share a centralized leadership, some collaborate on attacks," said the USCIRF, which added that violence linked to Fulani militants had caused more deaths among religious communities over the past year than attacks by insurgent groups or criminal gangs.

While many attacks have focused on Christian communities, particularly in the Middle Belt and increasingly in southern Nigeria, Muslim communities have also faced raids, killings and kidnappings.

The violence has contributed to mass displacement, with at least 1.3 million people in the Middle Belt forced into overcrowded and insecure camps. Kidnappings for ransom have also become a major tactic, with religious institutions often targeted.

Calls for stronger security coordination in Nigeria

The legal expert and founder of the Abuja-based House of Justice, Gloria Mabeiam Ballason, said the scale of the threat was difficult to independently verify due to a lack of verifiable information presented by Nigerian authorities.

She said this risked undermining public confidence and warned that conflicting messaging could fuel uncertainty and fear.

"These threats are real. It would help for the government to have a clear program and strategy around ensuring that the next set of recruits into terrorism are stopped," she told DW.

Wilson Inalegwu, a retired assistant inspector general of police, said that immediate efforts must combine force with better planning and coordination. He warned that attacks often spread across neighboring Nigerian states because authorities failed to anticipate patterns.

"Those in Kwara were not prepared. They thought it was a Niger problem. You go to Kwara State, those in Oyo State thought it was a Kwara problem. Now it is in Oyo. So, we must have a kind of very robust patrols along these areas," he told DW.

By Okeri Ngutjinazo, DW