The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) has rejected a report by the New York Times, accusing the American newspaper of misrepresentation, factual distortion and injurious falsehood over its coverage of alleged claims of a Christian genocide in Nigeria.
In a report published on Sunday, the New York Times examined how some United States policymakers, particularly Republican lawmakers, have relied on reports by advocacy groups to frame Nigeria’s security crisis as a targeted campaign against Christians. Central to the report was Intersociety’s founder and board chair, Emeka Umeagbalasi, whom the newspaper portrayed as an unreliable source of data.
The report claimed that Umeagbalasi admitted that he “often does not verify his data” and that his research relied largely on secondary sources, including Christian interest groups, Nigerian media reports and internet searches. It further alleged that he documented 125,000 Christian deaths since 2009 and claimed that nearly 20,000 churches had been destroyed across the country within the same period.
The New York Times also described Umeagbalasi as “a screwdriver salesman,” portraying him as an unlikely source whose work, it said, has been used by US lawmakers to advance what it termed a misleading narrative that Christians are being singled out for slaughter in Nigeria. The report further accused him of claiming that recently abducted schoolgirls in Kebbi State were mostly Christians, contrary to official accounts, and of making inflammatory remarks about the Fulani ethnic group.
However, Intersociety, in a detailed statement issued on Monday and co-signed by Umeagbalasi and other senior officials of the organisation, described the New York Times report as a “deliberate distortion of facts” and a “perfidy of lies.”
The organisation said it was “shocked and totally disappointed” that statements it insisted were never made during the interview were attributed to its leadership. According to Intersociety, the interview with the New York Times reporter took place at Umeagbalasi’s residence in Onitsha and lasted more than three hours.
“New York Times lied when it falsely claimed that our board chair admitted that he often does not verify his data,” the statement said, stressing that no such admission was made at any point during the interview.
Intersociety said it clearly outlined its data collection methodology during the engagement, explaining that its findings are based on a combination of primary and secondary sources. According to the group, primary data is generated through direct field investigations conducted by trained volunteer researchers and field assistants across the country, while secondary data is drawn from credible third-party sources and carefully cross-checked.
The organisation also faulted the newspaper’s presentation of its statistics on church attacks. It clarified that it documented about 19,100 churches that were attacked, burnt or destroyed between 2009 and 2024, not “close to 20,000” as reported. It added that its reference to 100,000 churches in Nigeria was an estimate of the total number of churches nationwide as of 2021, not a figure tied to destruction.
On Boko Haram’s victims, Intersociety rejected the New York Times’ suggestion that Muslims constitute the majority of those killed by the insurgent group. It argued that available statistics, particularly between 2009 and 2017, showed that Christians were disproportionately affected, including an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 Igbo Christian pastoralists living in northern Nigeria who were killed during the height of the insurgency.
The organisation also disputed claims that it said most of the abducted Kebbi schoolgirls were Christians. It explained that its position was that some Christian students were likely among the victims, given that the school involved was a government-owned institution and that Danko/Wasagu Local Government Area has a significant indigenous Christian population, despite being under an emirate council.
Intersociety further denied allegations that Umeagbalasi referred to the Fulani as “animals” or called for their confinement to a single state. According to the group, the comments were taken out of context from a discussion on its opposition to the federal government’s cattle ranching settlement policy.
It said Umeagbalasi merely argued that if the government was sincere about implementing a non-discriminatory ranching policy, it could consider developing large-scale modern cattle and dairy production facilities in Niger State, Nigeria’s largest state by landmass, rather than dispersing settlements across the country.
Responding to what it described as an attempt to ridicule its leadership, Intersociety said Umeagbalasi is “a successful, lawful and legitimate screwdriver salesman,” stressing that his profession does not diminish the credibility of his human rights advocacy or research.
The organisation accused the New York Times of undermining serious discourse on Nigeria’s security crisis and religious violence by focusing on personal attacks rather than engaging with the substance of its findings. It insisted that its documentation of killings, kidnappings and attacks on Christian communities across Nigeria remains credible, verifiable and grounded in years of fieldwork.
Intersociety called on the New York Times to retract what it described as false claims and to publish a fair and accurate account of the interview, warning that the misrepresentation could inflame tensions and distract from efforts to address Nigeria’s worsening insecurity crisis.
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