• Intersociety demands immediate release, tasks Nigerian Military on professionalism, balanced postings

Over 850 Christians are reportedly being held hostage in jihadist camps in Rijana, Kaduna State.

Leading rights group, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule (Intersociety) amplified the plight of the hostages in a statement in which it challenged the Nigerian Military to act swiftly and rescue the hostages. “A rare opportunity still beckons on Nigerian Military to return to its pre-June 2015 operational neutrality and secularity including rescuing more than 850 Christian Hostages under Jihadists’ captivity inside Rijana Forest near army formations in Kaduna, among others,” Intersociety said in a statement issued on Sunday, September 28, 2025.

The statement, signed by Intersociety’s Head, Emeka Umeagbalasi; Head, Dept. of Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Obianuju Joy Igboeli, Esquire; and Head, Department of Campaign and Publicity, Chidinma Udegbunam, Esquire, quoted copiously from the investigative report of the portal, Truth-Nigeria.

In a section entitled, “Over 850 Christians Hostages In Jihadist Camps In Rijana, Kaduna Must Be Freed,” Intersociety wrote: “According to a Special Report by Truth-Nigeria, dated Sept 4, 2025 and titled: ‘Inside Rijana: Nigeria’s Forest of (Christian) Hostages’, no fewer than 850 Christian Hostages are languishing inside Rijana Forest, near a Nigerian Army Base and others in Kachia county, Southern part of Kaduna State. The Rijana Forest, according to exclusive investigations by Truth-Nigeria researchers showed that the Forest is located along Kaduna-Abuja Expressway and home to the Nigerian Army Table Hill Training Area and Army School of Artillery, among other military sites. Emerging statistics have indicated that Kaduna State is likely to have recorded the largest number of kidnapped Christians in Nigeria in the past nine or ten months or between Dec 2, 2024 and Sept 28, 2025-with no fewer than 1,100 cases. This is to the extent that there are not less than 850 Christian hostages languishing inside the Rijana Forest, under the captivity of Fulani Jihadists and allied others, out of which about twenty have been freed including eight freed in February after ransom payment of N40m or about $30,000, according to researchers and investigators working for Truth-Nigeria (https://truthnigeria.com).

“The Truth-Nigeria’s special report also named three Christian sisters of the same parents: Maureen, Esther and Anita as among those abducted by Fulani Jihadists and taken to their Rijana camps where they were held and tortured for weeks before being freed after payment of N2.3m in August 2025. The more than 850 Christian hostages inside Rijana Jihadists’ camps are also reported to be those abducted between December 2024 and August 2025, during which no fewer than 100, according to freed captives’ accounts, were killed or hacked to death.

“Truth-Nigeria also quoted one of the freed kidnap victims, Maureen as disclosing as follows: “I saw many big camps, about five, but there could be more,” “each of them held over 50 hostages. There were also smaller camps with about 30 people each—more than 10 of those. Esther and I were kept in one of the smaller camps, numbering 30. Each camp is named after its commander. Ours was called Sanda, after the commander.” According to interviews with more than ten freed kidnap victims conducted by Truth-Nigeria, 1. a vast forest lies behind Rijana village in Kaduna State. 2. Hidden inside are multiple terrorist camps where Fulani gunmen keep abducted Christians in chains until ransom is paid. 3. Key Findings (based on testimonies of former captives): 11 major camps — each holds more than 50 captives (minimum total: 550+). 4. About 10 smaller camps — each holds around 30 captives (total: 300). 5. Combined total: at least 850 Christians in captivity as of August 2025. 6. Over 100 captives murdered between December 2024 and August 2025. 7. Killings occur when: Families cannot pay ransom, Guards are angered by captives’ behavior. 8. Male hostages are viewed as threat. 9. Similar enclaves exist in Benue State, around Otukpo and Katsina-Ala. Survivors say killings occur there too, though less brutally than in Rijana. For more details, see these links here: https://truthnigeria.com/2025/09/inside-rijana-nigerias-forest-of-hostages/, https://truthnigeria.com/2025/02/christiancaptivesstarvedtorturedbyfulaniterrorists.”

Intersociety in the statement also tasked the military to “stop distrustful Northernization of South-East Military Formations.”

It wrote: “There are growing concerns among independent and non-partisan South-East civilian citizens regarding the posting of senior military officers to man the country’s military formations in the South-East, whereby senior military officers of Northern Muslim extraction have dominated senior postings in the Region, a region with more than 95% Christian population and Christianity-affiliated others. Owing to the region’s ethno-religious peculiarities and going by raging and deeply ethno-religious divisions in the country and undeniable unfairness, imbalance and near-zero neutrality in security and defense law enforcement operations by the country’s military and police and allied others in the past ten years, the authorities of the military are strongly called upon to rewind and ensure ethno-religious balancing when posting senior military officers to man their formations in the South-East.

“This will give South-Easterners a sense of belonging, confidence and trust in matters of security and safety of their lives, liberties and properties, in addition to ensuring their psychological wellbeing and stability. According to our recent checks, there are at least four top senior military and police officers from Muslim Northern Nigeria holding forth as top commanders in Imo State alone. They include: 1 Brigadier Gen. Ibrahim Abbas, Commander, 34 Army Brigade, Obinze, near Owerri, 2. Air Commodore D.E. Bello, Commander, Nigerian Air Force 211 Quick Response Group Base, Owerri, 3. Navy Commodore MA Alhassan, Commander, Nigerian Naval Base, Oguta, Imo State, and 4. Mallam Aboki Danjuma, Commissioner of Police, Imo State Command of the Nigeria Police Force.”

Intersociety challenged “the Nigerian Defense Headquarters and its Nigerian Army branch to return the Armed Forces of Nigeria back to its pre June 2015 ‘military neutrality, secularity and semi-professionalism’ which then raised its public trust and confidence among Nigerians; irrespective of their ethnic and religious affiliations to about 45%, drastically reduced to less than 20% since then, especially among civilian citizens of the East and members of minority ethnic and religious groupings in the North.”

Continuing, the rights group said that, “Among major challenges facing the Nigerian military since then, according to critics, include: ‘lack of neutrality and professional soldiering’; with a clear case in point being widely suspected ‘romance with jihadist bandits and their allies in the North using ‘negotiations and pacifications’, which have made it very difficult for Government of Nigeria and the country’s security forces and their commanders to successfully extricate themselves from involvement including vicarious or direct liability in the attacks unleashed on civilian citizens and their properties cutting across indigenous Christians, Muslims and Traditionalists; leading to killing them in their tens of thousands forcing millions of IDPs and tens of thousands of refugees to be generated and millions of others to be displaced as well as wanton destruction of their natural and earned properties.”

In the view of Intersociety, “It is shocking and alarming that Nigeria is the only place where terror jihadists under the watch of the military and police are allowed to address world press conference brandishing loaded automatic rifles and other illicit small arms and light weapons without having successfully being disarmed, demobilized, rehabilitated, de-radicalized and transformed into lawful, liberal and tolerant civilian life, using the United Nations’ instruments of disarmament, demobilization and rehabilitation. It is not only that the referenced high-profile conspiracy has no place in the country’s Firearms Act of 2004 and other body of laws, it further raises fears and concerns regarding the inconsistency of the military especially the way the same military has let loose on innocent civilian Easterners and those labeled ‘criminal or terror citizens’ using mass and criminal labeling and hearsay conclusions. The same military that romances and pacifies jihadist bandits and allied others in the North, is found to have turned around and unleashed the East with maximum force and brutalities including incessant raids and confiscation of ‘self-defense, gaming and hunting weapons’, classified in the country’s written laws such as Firearms Act of 2004 as ‘un-prohibited firearms’.”

Intersociety did not spare the Nigeria Police. According to it, “The activities of the Nigeria Police Force are also nothing to write home about particularly in the East where our field monitors and researchers recently observed that more than four of every five roadblock police personnel are extortionist and corruption friendly, with about 70% of their core duties and attention abandoned; similar to military personnel on Eastern roads where more three of every five are found to be extortionist, corruption and brutality friendly, contrary to provisions of Section 108 of the Armed Forces Act-that outlaws military roadblock extortion and brutality. Authorities of the Nigeria Police Force are also found to be banking on ‘extrajudicial law enforcements and operations and use of statutorily questionable ‘remand orders’; sobriquet ‘Holden Charge’ worsening the cases of unlawful killings, abductions and disappearances; and arrest and indefinite and untried detention, etc.”