Nigerian Pastor Referenced by Trump Buries Members Amid Ongoing Killings 

Mass Burials Overwhelm Rev. Dachomo Days After Praising Trump’s Speech to UN

By Masara Kim 

JOS, Nigeria – Weary and bleary-eyed, Rev. Ezekiel Dachomo sat beside a mass grave on Friday, September 25, studying three bodies awaiting burial. Unknown to him, nine more people will be dead within the next 24hrs. 

The Nigerian cleric — seen in a viral mass-burial video shared by U.S. President Donald Trump — was once again mourning his members killed by terrorists identified as Fulani. The majority Muslim group is responsible for six times more Christian deaths than Boko Haram. It was the fifth terrorist attack on his region in one week alone.

At that same hour, two more bodies lay in farms 10 miles away. Five miles away, another pastor was being buried near where he was killed the previous Sunday, September 20. In that same village, two more Christians would be shot dead that night, and another five nearby the following morning. 

The latest assaults come just days after Dachomo praised Trump for speaking out for persecuted Christians at the United Nations General Assembly.

Addressing the 81st session of the UNGA in New York on Tuesday, President Trump said global leaders were ignoring the persecution of Christians worldwide, describing it as a crisis of unbelievable scale that has gone on “for a long time.”

“I mean, Christians are being persecuted all over the world. It’s not even believable,” Trump said. “I never thought I’d say it, but it’s been happening for a long time.”

Speaking from the edge of the grave on Friday, Dachomo said: “President Trump, thank you for advocating for us in Nigeria — the most persecuted church in the world. Thank you for advocating for us at the United Nations Assembly. I watched your address to the end, praying for you, not knowing that today some of my members will be butchered.”

TruthNigeria learned that armed terrorists attacked two Christian villages 15 to 20 miles south of Jos, the Plateau State capital, at about 10:30 p.m. locally on Thursday, Sept. 24, killing three residents.

Solomon Dalyop, a tribal leader from the Berom ethnic group, said Fulani-speaking militants targeted civilian-watch posts in Chit and Gassa villages in Barkin Ladi Local Government Area.

Civilian guards in Chit repelled the attackers with homemade pipe guns, firing  rapidly from behind trees and brick walls to create the impression of a larger defense force, Dalyop said. The guards in Gassa were less fortunate.

“Last night, they came again and they succeeded in killing three of our brothers,” Dalyop said during the mass burial in Gassa. He noted that earlier attacks had killed at least 50 residents in the region this month. The victims included a pastor killed along with his church employee on their way to church on Sunday, September 20. His burial was held Friday in his hometown of Mararabar Kantoma in Mangu LGA, the same day the three Gassa victims were buried.

Governor Caleb Mutfwang in a statement condemned the attacks and assured “security agencies are already taking necessary steps to track down the perpetrators and prevent further occurrences.” Yet, as the burials for the Gassa and Kantoma victims were being held, two more people were killed in separate attacks by Fulani attackers near the border of Barkin Ladi and Jos East LGAs, local leaders told TruthNigeria. 

The attacks in Rubung and Federe villages preceded another attack in the same town where the Baptist Church pastor was buried. Local town leader Jerry Datim told TruthNigeria the victims were killed in their homes by terrorists who attacked them with assault rifles at minutes after 10 o’clock in the evening.

While residents conveyed their bodies to the mortuary the following morning, another assault 5 miles from the scene killed five more people, TruthNigeria learned. The Saturday morning attack at approximately 11am locally, targeted artisanal miners in Lajam, part of a group of villages known as Marit, TruthNigeria learned. Patience Sandah, the Liaison officer to Governor Caleb Mutfwang in Barkin Ladi told TruthNigeria the victims included a newly enlisted soldier of the Nigerian army who just returned home to visit his family in the village. 

Civilian Guards Face Fire as Soldiers Stand Down

Unlike the attack in Gassa, soldiers of Operation Enduring Peace alongside operatives of the Department of State Services responded swiftly to the attack according to Sandah. But by the time they arrived at midday from their base 3miles away, the attackers had escaped. Among those killed in Gassa was Ishaya Pam Dung, a respected leader who headed the village’s civilian watch team.

Witnesses told TruthNigeria that Dung and his 10-member team faced a three-pronged attack from the west, southwest and northwest for more than 30 minutes without intervention from a military Forward Operating Base about two miles away. Although the defenders were outgunned and outnumbered three to one by an estimated 30 attackers on motorcycles, Barkin Ladi Chairman Stephen Gyang Pwajok said their actions prevented a greater loss of life.

“He was in my office last week, telling me about the threats faced by his community, and even though this hurts, their effort was what saved this community,” Pwajok said before criticizing the military’s response.

“The soldiers in that FOB have drones. Is it that the drone could not spot these attackers? Something is wrong somewhere,” he said. Dalyop voiced similar concerns.

“The question is, was it a surprising attack? Not at all, because there was information even as of yesterday that they will still come back and strike, and lo and behold, they came and did it,” Dalyop said, referring to alerts reported by TruthNigeria. He said all state security agencies had been informed and should have secured the attackers’ suspected routes rather than positioning themselves in village centers.

Dalyop accused the military of complicity with the terrorists.

“Before this incident happened, information available to us is that the FOB commander in Fass was told. Movement of motorcycles were spotted. And he was intimated and the flying of drones came after the motorcycles and then lo and behold, there was attack with precision,” Dalyop said, calling for a thorough investigation.

The attack, the latest in a series that residents say the military failed to prevent, prompted local women to stage a mass protest early Friday, before the burial, demanding that soldiers leave the area.

More than 1,000 women gathered on the Jos highway as early as 7 a.m., blocking every entrance and exit to the town for more than three hours. They chanted, “We don’t want soldiers. They should go back to where they came from.”

The women declined to speak with reporters. Tribal leaders eventually persuaded them to end the protest and allow talks with military officials.

TruthNigeria witnessed the arrival of the commander of Operation Enduring Peace and soldiers from the joint military task force. The delegation spent hours trying to calm the protesters before local leaders intervened and arranged a closed-door meeting with representatives of women’s and youth groups. The officials did not speak to the press.

Rev. Dachomo acknowledged shortcomings in the military’s response but stopped short of condemning the institution as a whole.

“I am calling on all my members to support soldiers of the Nigerian Army, stand for them, though there are rotten people among them that have sold out their profession, going into bias. Pray for them that God should show them mercy,” he said, while calling for international intervention over continuing violence in Nigeria.

Masara Kim is an award-winning conflict reporter based in Jos, Nigeria, and senior editor of TruthNigeria.

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