A Nigerian journalist has been cleared of criminal defamation-related charges stemming from his reporting on violence against Christians, bringing a years-long legal case to an end.
Journalist Luka Binniyat was arrested in November 2021 after publishing an article in The Epoch Times titled “In Nigeria, Police Decry Massacres as ‘Wicked’ But Make No Arrests,” which examined religious violence in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, including Kaduna state.
The article quoted Nigerian Sen. Danjuma Laah criticizing Samuel Aruwan, Kaduna’s commissioner of internal security and home affairs, for describing an attack on Christian farmers as a “clash.” Laah accused the state government of using “Samuel Aruwan, a Christian, to cause confusion to cover up the genocide going on in Christian Southern Kaduna by describing the measure as a ‘clash’” instead of identifying it as targeted violence against Christians.
Authorities initially charged Binniyat with cyberstalking Aruwan. He spent 84 days in custody before being released in January 2022, though the case against him remained active.
More than four years after his arrest, the Federal High Court in Kaduna issued a ruling in May clearing him. The court found “no evidence to prove the essential elements of the alleged offense” and described the prosecution’s evidence as “manifestly unreliable.”
“I am grateful that I was released and the charges against me were dismissed,” Binniyat said. “However, my experience shows that there is much work to be done in Nigeria regarding protecting free expression, especially when it comes to speaking out on religious freedom and reporting honestly about what is really happening to Christians in the country.”
Binniyat said it is “troubling” that he was arrested for carrying out his work as a journalist.
“It is essential that as Christians face widespread persecution throughout Nigeria, the press is free to quote what public figures are saying and doing about this crisis,” he stated.
Sean Nelson, senior counsel for global religious freedom at ADF International, said Binniyat had simply “accurately quote a Nigerian legislator’s own words.”
“This ruling is a vindication for Luka, but it should also be a wake-up call: accurate reporting on atrocities is not a crime, and journalists covering religious persecution deserve protection, not prosecution,” Nelson said. “Across Nigeria, Christians are being slaughtered for their faith.”
“Journalists have both a duty and a right to report on these violent, religiously-motivated attacks,” Nelson added. “Without their reporting, the suffering they face would go largely unnoticed.”
Nigeria has faced years of deadly violence affecting predominantly Christian farming communities across the Middle Belt, while Islamist extremist groups such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State have continued attacks in the country’s north.
Late last year, President Donald Trump designated Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC), citing what he described as an “existential” threat facing Christians from radical Islamic terrorist groups and radicalized herders.
