The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) has described BBC-Africa as integrity-challenged, alleging that it was sponsored by the Nigerian Presidency to discredit its expert report on Christian genocide in the country.

It made the allegation in a statement issued in Enugu on Friday, Nov 7, 2025, signed by the Head, Emeka Umeagbalasi; Head, Dept. of Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Obianuju Joy Igboeli, Esquire; and Head, Dept. of Campaign and Publicity, Chidinma Udegbunam, Esquire. Below is the meat of the statement:

How BBC-Africa Mailed Nine Presidentially Scripted Questions To Intersociety: One Olaronke Alo of the “Disinformation Unit” of the BBC-Africa was among dozens of media enquirers that reached us over “claims of Christian Genocide in Nigeria”; reaching us using different communication platforms. Suspicions began to unfold when the said Olaronke Alo of BBC-Africa defied decorum and reportorial professionalism and started asking threatening and partisan questions-particularizing them on “how we manufactured the reports and figures on alleging Christian Genocide in Nigeria”. She also cited the headline of our report released on August 10, 2025, but mischievously changed the narrative by twisting and misrepresenting the Report by way of deliberately excluding the “estimated 60,000 nonviolent Muslim deaths”. Despite our repeated insistence, drawing her attention and urging her to reflect the number accordingly and as was titled, she bluntly refused, thereby leaving us with a conclusive option that she was on a mission to execute hatchet and dirty job, likely to be presidentially commissioned and scripted. Not done, she returned after some days and requested for our email to mail some questions, so that, according to her, “we will not be misquoted” and that “our answers will be reflected and shared on their news platforms”. Having sensed partisanship and hatchet job, we resolved to prepare a 16-Page world class response in readiness for any eventuality which is now playing out. It was also in the course of the above, in addition to further background checks that we concluded that “BBC-Africa is integrity-challenged” and having a long running battle with reportorial neutrality and professionalism.

Our Grounded Answers That BBC-Africa Refused To Reflect Or Fairly Balance: The Nigerian public and the world in general are hereby invited to read through the referenced Sahara Reporters’ trending publication to see things for themselves, or in the alternative, visit our website to read through our point-by-point response to BBC-Africa’s mailed questions. The link to our website trending publication is here: https://intersociety-ng.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/STATEMENT-OF-FACT-BY-INTERSOCIETY-BOSS-IN-RESPONSE-TO-FACT-CHECK-ENQUIRIES-BY-BBC-AFRICAS-GLOBAL-DISINFORMATION-UNIT-LED-BY-ORARONKE-ALO-AND-PETER-MWAI.pdf

Our Position:

It Is Impossible To Discredit Our 16-Year-Old Reports Rooted In Natural And Scientific Data Collection: One of our strongest data collection, analysis and management strategies, also one of the oldest natural methods in the world is: time, location and space of an incident or crime scene. In a premeditated fatal incident, for instance, we rely on: who were those killed? Who killed them? Where were they killed? When were they killed? Why were they killed? How many of them were killed or injured or abducted and taken to where and by who? Was there justice accountability for victims and perpetrators using criminology, victimology and penology? Desperate agents of Government in Nigeria since the midyear of 2015 are also found to have periodically colluded with some principal agents of western-originated leading social media platforms to take down publications and their digital references they deemed unfavourable to them and their principals; which explains why we majorly focus on referencing our statistical sources by mentioning names, dates, months and year of sources of such publications.

We hereby declare that even if 100 BBC-Africa and their Disinformation Units’ outfits are assembled against us, they can never discredit our reports and their generated statistics. It is also a grounded norm in social science research, that a researcher’s work remains indisputable and substantially valid until a disputant or rival another conducts a counter research on the same subject matter with superior facts and figures. Palmtop-based or computer room data loophole search engine results can never amount to valid disputation of findings of a research or investigative work especially one that has been built or compiled for more than fifteen years. A saying also goes that “something can never be generated from nothing”. In other words, one can never give out what one does not have. In the immortal word of Late Prof Chinua Achebe: “if you think my written work is nonsense and fallaciously disputable, go and produce your own including passing through the pains of sleepless nights and intellectual doldrums”. It is an uphill task disputing a research work you were never part of its preparation including data gathering, publication and archiving or storage.

Using media space to unleash presidentially scripted and rooted piece rooted in pecuniary interests can never move us at Intersociety. We are also far more patriotic. While the Presidency wittingly or unwittingly seeming not to be doing enough to stop the country from exploding into Complex Humanitarian Emergencies or Catastrophes with explosive population of 238m using UN projected estimates through inability and unwillingness, contrary to the International Criminal Law’s Principle of Complementarity and Zero Impunity under the Rome Statute of 1998, signed and ratified by Nigeria in Sept 2001; we are pricelessly campaigning for Nigerians, irrespective of their ethnicity and religion to be protected to live harmoniously, safely and securely. It is also very important to point out that our reports only amplify those of other international religious voices who have independently been gathering data on massacre of Christians across the country in the past ten to fifteen years or since 2010 or 2015.

The Nine Presidentially Scripted And Rooted BBC-Africa’s Questions:

1. As we have discussed, I am working on a story about the recent surge in claims about mass killings of Christians in Nigeria, which will be published across BBC platforms. Inter Society’s research has been referenced during the recent debate in the United States surrounding claims of Christian persecution in Nigeria. https://tinyurl.com/4vn8xdc7. We’d like further clarification on your data. The report claims that 125,009 Christians have been killed in targeted attacks by jihadists and terror groups since 2009 and 19,000 churches destroyed. We have reviewed the report, and we have not seen clear well-sourced evidence of how you reached these figures. If they are available, can you direct us to an itemised list of attacks to verify them?

2. You pointed us to the table of collected statistics that Inter Society published covering attacks on Christians and churches between January-August 2025. Does such a table exist for the previous years of your research?

3. You published a report in 2023 that found the number of Christian deaths was just over 50,000. How do you account for the extra 50,000-plus Christian killings between 2023 and 2025 and what are your sources for that increase?

4. We analysed all the sources cited in that report (Jan-Aug 2025) and found that you reported that media reports identified the religion of the victims, but 35 of those media sources did not. For example, Inter Society quoted an Al Jazeera report of an attack in the north-east. It says that “according to Al Jazeera news online of January 13, 2025, not less than 40 farmers mainly Christians were abducted by Boko Haram in Damboa part of Borno State.” But that report did not mention the victims’ religious identity. How did you conclude the victims of an attack were mainly Christians?

5. Why do you characterise the Herder – Farmer conflict as primarily one driven by religion?

6. Aside from the statistical table for the 2025 data which lists some media reports, can you provide sources for the rest of the killings? The media reports do not account for the roughly 7,000 you mention. Are we correct to believe that the rest of the figures are based on data you have not published – such as eyewitness accounts, research from other organisations and groups etc – and your own estimates?

7. What is your methodology for generating estimates for deaths as you have for different states in 2025?

8. For the number of churches Inter Society says have been destroyed, we understand you quoted Open Doors for 13,000 of these attacks from a 2015 study. But what reports, sources or data did you use to justify for the additional 6,100? We didn’t see any explanation for how you reached this figure, please share if it is available.

9. The Nigeria army has claimed that your organisation is affiliated with IPOB, operating in the Southeast of Nigeria, which has often spoken about these issues. Does InterSociety have links with the Indigenous People of Biafra? Or is it affiliated with or share its research with any Biafra organisations based in the United States?