The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) has accused the New York Times of misrepresenting facts and falsely attributing statements to its founder, Emeka Umeagbalasi, in a report on claims of Christian persecution in Nigeria.
The rights group said it was “shocked and totally disappointed” by what it described as a “perfidy of lies” contained in the report published on Sunday by the American newspaper.
In the report, the New York Times claimed that Umeagbalasi admitted he “often does not verify his data” and that his findings were largely based on secondary sources such as Christian interest groups, Nigerian media reports and internet searches.
The report also alleged that the Intersociety founder claimed that 125,000 Christians had been killed in Nigeria since 2009, that about 100,000 churches existed in the country, and that nearly 20,000 churches had been destroyed in the past 16 years.
The newspaper further accused Umeagbalasi of wrongly asserting that schoolgirls abducted in Kebbi State were mostly Christians, contrary to official claims that they were Muslims.
It also alleged that he referred to Fulani people as “animals” and advocated confining them to one state, a suggestion the newspaper described as “tantamount to ethnic cleansing”.
The report was said to be based on an interview conducted at Umeagbalasi’s home in Onitsha.
In a statement issued on Monday and jointly signed by Umeagbalasi and other Intersociety officials, the organisation denied the allegations, insisting that several claims attributed to it were never made during the interview, which it said lasted over three hours.
“New York Times lied when it falsely claimed that our Board Chair admitted that he often does not verify his data,” the statement read.
The group explained that its data collection methods include both primary and secondary sources, involving direct field research and third-party verification.
Intersociety clarified that it did not say “close to 20,000 churches” were destroyed, but rather that 19,100 churches were attacked or destroyed between 2009 and 2025.
It said it only “peripherally mentioned” that Nigeria likely had about 100,000 churches as of 2021, adding that an estimated 19,100 of them were affected by attacks attributed to Islamist groups.
The organisation also rejected the claim that it relies solely on internet searches, stating that it works with “expert-volunteers and field research assistants” who document incidents nationwide in line with international best practices.
Reacting to the New York Times’ claim that many Boko Haram victims were Muslims, Intersociety described the assertion as incorrect.
“Available statistics, especially from 2009 to 2017, show that most victims of Boko Haram were Christians, including an estimated 3,000–4,000 pastoral Igbo Christians living in northern Nigeria,” the group said.
On the Kebbi schoolgirls’ abduction, Intersociety said it never claimed that most of the victims were Christians, but only expressed suspicion that some Christians might be among them, noting that the school was a government institution located in an area with an indigenous Christian population.
The organisation also denied calling Fulani people animals or advocating their confinement.
It said the issue arose during a discussion on cattle ranching policies, where it suggested that if the Federal Government was sincere about ranching reforms, Niger State, Nigeria’s largest state by landmass, should be developed into a modern cattle and dairy hub.
Intersociety insisted that the suggestion was misrepresented and taken out of context.
The group called on the New York Times to correct what it described as damaging falsehoods and reaffirmed its commitment to human rights documentation and advocacy.