Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has condemned the call by five US senators for the re-designation of Nigeria as a country of particular concern over alleged violation of religious freedom.
In June, the five US senators asked Antony Blinken, US secretary of state, to re-designate Nigeria as a country of particular concern.
They cited the attack on St Francis Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo state, and the lynching of Deborah Samuel, a female student of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, as cases of “religious persecutions” in Nigeria.
But responding to the allegation in an interview with NAN on Monday, the minister of information, stated that the call was based on “false premise and misunderstanding of what is going on in the country”.
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“You will recall that only few months ago, Nigeria was taken out of the list of countries of particular concern because it was proven that there is no iota of true in the allegation that Christians or any religion was being persecuted or people were not allowed to practice religion of their choice,” he said.
“We want to say once again that Nigeria does not have a policy that denies people the freedom to practice their religion.
“The country also does not have a policy of violation freedom of religion and it is not true that Nigeria persecute anybody on account of his or her faith.”
Mohammed stated that the constitution of Nigeria guarantees the right of anyone to practice their own faith without molestation, and that the government has always guarded the constitutional provision jealously.
