Plateau, Benue killings: Nigeria under-policed, says cleric

Following the unabated attacks on Christian communities in some states of the Northern Nigeria, an Abuja-based clergy, Apostle Emmanuel Atsagba-Dekor, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to as a matter of urgency direct for the recruitment of more police personnel in order to forestall future occurrences.

Arewa PUNCH reports that Apostle Atsagba-Dekor, who is the Lead Pastor, Supernatural Peoples’ Embassy, made the call during an exclusive interview with our correspondent in Lafia on Thursday.

Atsagba-Dekor lamented that the continued killing of Christians in the Northern Nigeria by bandits, particularly in Plateau, Benue and Kaduna states, are as a result of inadequate policing in rural communities, noting that most rural communities across the North have only few or no police officers at all to protect the citizens.

The Apostle, therefore, urged the federal government to prioritise the regular recruitment and deployment of police personnel to troubled areas across the country, especially in the North, in a bid to proffer a lasting solution to the killings which had continued unabated.

He said, “Christians, particularly, in places like Plateau, Benue, and Southern Kaduna are being targeted.

These are the places of genocide in which they concentrate their repeated attacks on a particular group of people, which is an attack on the Christian community.

“The police are not always there in every nook and cranny of our nation because we are under-policed. That was why the president took the initiative by directing the immediate past Inspector-General of Police to retrieve the policemen attached to VIPs because over 100,000 policemen were guarding and sleeping in VIP’s houses. If we have that high figure guarding our VIPs, then how many do we have on the streets for operations?

“So, we are under-policed. The thing I would tell the President is that he should try to recruit more policemen. There are people who are unemployed. Get them into the service. Get them into the force.

We should prioritise the lives of the citizens. If the president is re-elected next year, in his next four years, he should prioritise making Nigeria have at least one million police officers.

“He should get that as a vision. Nigerian policemen should be one million personnel. Every year, he should recruit like 150,000. In four years, we will have around 600,000 police personnel. When we now add the number of the ones already employed at the moment to the newly recruited ones, we will have up to one million police officers who will help to protect the citizens from bandits.”

While sharing his opinion on the recent declaration by the Christian Association of Nigeria that Christians should henceforth, protect themselves from attacks, Apostle Emmanuel Atsagba-Dekor affirmed that it was important for Christians to protect themselves from the killers and attackers in their various communities.

He advised that Christians should collaborate with vigilante outfits in their respective communities in order to adequately protect themselves from the invaders.

“We should protect ourselves. Vigilantes are there to protect us. Every community must protect itself with weapons, with whatever means you can readily lay your hands on. Vigilance, information, and intelligence-sharing are also very important if we truly want to protect ourselves.

“Vigilantes have their guns, so the answer is yes. It is true that we need to protect ourselves.”

Speaking on the ministers’ conference slated to hold on Friday, April 10, 2026 in Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital, Apostle Atsagba-Dekor noted that the programme themed: “Ministry As Worship”, aims to give pastors and ministers of God a platform to gather together and pray for the nation.

According to him, the conference is a time of encouragement and a time of revelation, adding that it is a moment to get inspirations on how to continue to deliver on the assignment given to them by God.

“The ministers conference will be taking place at Above Only International Christian Centre in Lafia at 10 am.

“So, it is a gathering for pastors and church leaders to see how we can strategise to do what God has called us to do better.

“Usually, we have a session where we dedicate for prayers for the host state, and then we have a session for the country. Those times of prayer, we pray for all manner of things like the insecurity that had bedevilled Nigeria, plus the other challenges holding this country down and remember, there are various challenges.

“When we go from place to place, our hosts are usually on the ground. Me me and my team of pastors, before we get there or upon arrival, they will tell us the challenges that are peculiar to that place. And so we will now factor it into our prayer session,” he further explained.

Meanwhile, the cleric seized the opportunity to appeal to Christians in the North and other parts of Nigeria not to give up on the country in spite of its numerous challenges.

Rather, he urged Christians to continue to pray for the nation while expressing optimism that Nigeria will bounce back stronger in the nearest future.