A lawmaker representing West Virginia’s Second District in the United States House of Congress, Rep Riley M. Moore, has written to President Donald Trump, asking the US government to immediately designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concerns, CPC.
The letter dated October 6, 2025, and addressed to Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, US Department of State in Washington DC.
In the letter, the lawmaker urged the US government to immediately halt sales of arms and all associated technical support to Nigeria until the “Nigerian government demonstrates that it is sufficiently committed to ending the reign of persecution and slaughter”.
Moore claimed that from January to September 2025 alone, no fewer than 7,000 Christians have been gruesomely murdered by “Muslim extremist groups”.
He alleged that at least 250 Catholic Priests have been attacked or killed across the country since 2015, stressing that “between Boko Haram uprising in 2009 and 2025, 19,100 churches in Nigeria have been attacked or destroyed”.
President Trump had during his first tenure designated Nigeria as a CPC but his successor, former President Joe Biden reversed the designation.
US Senator Ted Cruz, television host Bill Maher, and political commentator Van Jones had also alleged that Nigeria is witnessing a “Christian genocide”.
During a recent podcast appearance with American talk show host Bill Maher, Senator Cruz alleged that Christians were being systematically targeted and killed in Nigeria, describing the situation as “genocide”.
But the Federal Government had since dismissed the report, stating that the deteriorating security situation in the country does not target a particular religion.
The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Media and Public Communication, Sunday Dare, in a recent statement, described the allegations as false, misleading and capable of inciting division.
According to him, the foreign commentators were “orchestrating wild allegations about unproven ongoing genocide” in Nigeria and urged Nigerians and the international community to reject attempts to “robe the country with a garment that is not hers”.
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