The Executive Secretary of the Christian Social Movement of Nigeria (CSMN) has accused the Federal Government of Nigeria of complicity in the Jos 29th March 2026, Palm Sunday attack, calling for urgent action to end the bloodshed.
In a press release dated 31 March 2026, signed by the Chief Executive Officer and Executive Secretary of the Christian Social Movement of Nigeria (CSMN), Bosun Emmanuel expressed frustration with the government, citing previous attacks against Christians.
In the statement titled “Black Palm Sunday 2026: Government as accomplice to terrorism,” Emmanuel expressed anguish over the murder of 34 Christians at Angwan Rukuba in Jos City, stressing that “over the years, there have been similar attacks against Christians during Christian festivities.”
The group recalled Christmas Day 2011, when Boko Haram launched a series of coordinated attacks on Christians in Madalla (near Abuja), Jos, Gadaka, and Damaturu killing “over 41 Christians.”
They mentioned the Easter 2012 Kaduna attack, which left “at least 38 Christians dead by a suicide bomber,” clarifying that “the target was an ECWA Church, but the device detonated prematurely.”
CSMN highlighted the Easter incident of “2019 in Gombe State, along the Gombe-Biu Road, [when] a vehicle rammed into a procession of the Boys Brigade, killing 11 Christian children.”
It listed the Christmas Eve 2023 coordinated attacks by Fulani militia at Mangu, Bokkos, and Barkin Lardi in Plateau State, which left not less than 259 Christians killed, as well as the Easter Monday, 1st April 2024 attack in multiple villages in Plateau State by the Fulani militia, which left 39 plus 29 Christians dead within a span of two weeks.
The Christian body also cited the Christmas 2024 killings of dozens of Christians in Benue State by the Fulani militia, as well as the Palm Sunday 2025 attack in Bassa LGA in Plateau State by suspected herders that tragically ended the lives of 56 Christians (including children).
The organisation decried the 21st April 2025, Easter Monday in Billiri LGA of Gombe State, where “a truck driver deliberately rammed into a Christian procession, killing 6 and injuring many others,” adding that the recent “2025 Christmas attack plans were fortunately foiled by the strike of the United States on terrorist locations in Sokoto State.”
Drawing on what it described as an “attack against Christians,” the group maintained that the 29th March 2026 followed “a pattern of unprovoked yet dastardly attacks on unarmed Christians in the Northern and Middle Belt regions of Nigeria.
“The convoluted conspiracies about a ‘clash’ between ‘herders’ and ‘farmers’ have again crashed, as the attack was on no farmland and the attackers were herding no livestock.”
CSMN emphasised that the attack “has purely been Islamist terrorism based on Islamic jihad, in violation of Section 38(1) and Section 10 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).”
It lamented that “The attack on Christians in Jos on Sunday, 29th March 2026, is a painful reminder of the shoddy handling of the war on terror by the Federal Government.
“Thus far, the Government has been acting in slow motion, which has provoked intelligent fingers pointing at it as an accomplice or enabler of the terrorists.”
The body listed its concerns, which have led to the “sad conclusion,” that:
“A Government that could hurriedly and effectively cross the border to quell a military coup d’etat in Benin Republic has strangely been unable to quell terror attacks at home, which makes logical Nigerians and the wider world wonder about charities that so often begin abroad.
“Instead of decisively eradicating Islamic terrorism in Nigeria, the government has been absorbing terrorists into the Nigeria Army and especially other security infrastructures as “repentant terrorists.” Some of them have been accused of working for their terrorist peers on the other side of the front lines.
“So far, the very provocative and inflammatory statements of Sheik Abubakar Gumi, in outright support for and endorsement of the terrorists, have not been checked by the government. Many Nigerians worry that if that had been a different Nigerian, the story would have been remarkably different.
“The military Chief of Defense Staff, in a recent statement, excused blood-thirsty terrorists as ‘prodigal sons’ who should be welcomed back home. Did the prodigal son of the Bible shed the blood of innocent people? We wonder why the Chief of Defense Staff, General Olufemi Oluyede, did not quote Genesis 9:6, which commands that if a man sheds blood, by man should his blood be shed.”
The Christian body also condemned the “ongoing Islamist insurgency in Nigeria” and all other terror attacks.
“The Movement equally condemns the apparent complicity of the present administration in these terror attacks, and calls to account the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, for poor and weak leadership over Muslims in Nigeria.
“As the traditional ruler of the Fulanis, every Fulani terrorist is his subject, whom he has the revered powers to restrain. Furthermore, as President of the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs in Nigeria, the Sultan cannot absolve himself of criminal negligence over terror attacks being perpetrated by killers whose usual war cry, on such dastardly missions, is their common religious refrain,” CSMN stated.
The movement called “on the international community to intervene in the ongoing genocide against Christians in Nigeria,” emphasising that “More people have been killed and are being killed in Nigeria by ethnoreligious Islamist insurgents than are killed in Palestine. All lives are sacred.”
CSMN sympathised “with all suffering Nigerians for the anguish they have had to endure under a government that has broken faith with the people.”
Citing failure “to comply with Section 14(2)b of the Constitution, which states, ‘the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government,'” CSMN opined that “the security and welfare of Nigerians do not appear to be the primary purpose of the present administration.”
The body mourned “with the families affected in the carnage,” praying that God grants them “comfort and strengthen them to bear the loss.”
