Opinion

Re-Armed Herdsmen Attack, Disrupt Church Crusade In Nasarawa Community: Dismissing Vanguard News's Sensationally Misleading Headline

By Yahaya Kana Ismaila 

I first heard the story of how a young man was attacked in Agboda community of Udege Development Area and dispossessed of his motorcycle on Tuesday, November 25, 2025. And because such attacks have become depressingly routine across the entire Udege Development area axis where armed herders frequently graze their cattle over people’s crops, harass farmers, and sometimes kill anyone who dares to challenge them, I did not immediately treat the incident as unusual. It was one more unfortunate entry in a growing catalogue of insecurity that our people have been forced to endure.

One feature of these attacks is the total media silence that has always greeted them. So imagine my brief excitement when I learned that Vanguard was working on a story about the issue. For once, I thought, a mainstream newspaper would shine a proper light on the collective ordeal of communities in Udege Development Area. 

But that enthusiasm evaporated the moment the report was published. What should have been a sober, factual account of a security problem that has claimed lives, livelihoods, and farmlands was instead presented under a headline that read like something drawn straight out of the sensational playbook of Trump-era American Christian persecution narrative. Dramatic, disingenuous, and irresponsibly misleading.

In the Vanguard article titled “Armed Herdsmen Attack, Disrupt Church Crusade in Nasarawa Community”, the framing of the headline leans dangerously on the narrative of Christian persecution. While the story itself, relying heavily on the account of one Dr. David Ukpo, a pastor, correctly showed that the attacked young man was randomly waylaid on the road, what the headline suggests, is that the victim was not just attacked by criminals but was allegedly targeted because he was on his way to a church crusade in Agboda. 

Yes, the headline created the impression that the attackers sought him out specifically because of his faith. And in this era where Nigerians hardly click through to read news, comments in Vanguard's page reflected this framing as virtually everyone who commented charged in with the emotional story of targeted Christian persecution.

But, if they had opened the story, they would have read that even by Dr. Ukpo’s own telling, quoted in the same report, there is no evidence to support the claim of Christian persecution that swept through the comments section. Nowhere did the pastor even as much as imply that the attack happened inside Agboda, let alone that it was targeted at Christian worshippers. He never stated that the victim was a Christian, nor that he was heading for the crusade when he was ambushed. What he did say was that the news of the alleged attack triggered panic, prompting those who had arrived for the crusade to disperse hurriedly. That is understandable in a volatile environment. But it does not justify the spin that Vanguard chose to embrace.

Before I relay the version of events from eyewitnesses in Agboda, it is important to state clearly the existing realities in the area. First, the two neighbouring communities of Agboda and Oshini have had a lingering border dispute which is only now inching toward resolution. Second, like virtually all communities across the Udege Development Area, they have suffered repeated attacks from suspected armed herdsmen; attacks involving destruction of crops, theft of motorcycles and farm produce, and sometimes outright killings. Anyone familiar with the region knows that these crimes have never been about religion. They are about impunity, lawlessness, and the failure of the state to secure rural populations.

Now to the actual events of that evening. A young farmer returning late from his sesame farm was indeed ambushed by suspected armed herdsmen who snatched his motorcycle. But the young man was not “macheted in the head,” nor was he mortally wounded as claimed in the Vanguard story and reinforced by the pastor’s version. He survived. And because the youth in Agboda and Oshini are often on alert given previous incidents, they quickly mobilised and pursued the criminals, forcing them to abandon the stolen motorcycle, which the youth recovered.

No! It was not an attack on a Nasarawa community. It was rumours of an attack that spread fear in Agboda!

It was also true that a crusade scheduled in the Agboda community was called off after rumours of a “herders’ invasion” began to spread. Fear took over the atmosphere. People fled. That is the environment insecurity has created: one rumour can scatter an entire gathering. But fear-driven reactions do not justify a national newspaper publishing under a headline that clearly presents an embellished version of events without verifying/fact-checking for reasons best known to them. 

All the people in Agboda that I spoke to have debunked Vanguard's narrative. And very sure even Dr. Ukpo would be wondering how his account of the incident gave Vanguard the dangerous idea that an attack was carried out on the entire village! I think Dr. Ukpo ought to reached out to Vanguard to correct the misleading sections of his story, especially the parts that formed the basis for the paper’s sensational headline.

My appeal is simple. Our people in the villages are facing enough danger already in the hands of violent criminals suspected to be armed herdsmen. What we need is improved security, responsive policing, and early interventions including early-warning system, not religious sensationalism that complicates an already delicate situation. Injecting religion into this crisis like Vanguard did with its headline does nothing but blur the lines and distract from the real issue: the state’s inability to protect its citizens.

I urge Vanguard newspaper to resist the growing temptation to join the circus of religious sensationalism and fake news. The problems that our people are facing are real enough without adding false labels to them.