Nigeria Report: Interview With Luka Binniyat, Recently Freed From Prison

Luka Binniyat, a journalist and human rights activist from Kaduna state in Nigeria, spent three months in jail on trumped up charges linked to his reporting on Fulani militia attacks on Christians in his state. Just days after his release on 3 February, Binniyat kindly agreed to speak to Christian Solidarity International (CSI).

In this interview, Binniyat talks about the events that led up to his arrest, the “evil” being meted out to Christians in Kaduna State, and the horrors of prison life in Nigeria.

CSI: You were arrested on 4 November 2021 after you published an article in The Epoch Times on the killing of four Christians by Fulani herdsmen in the town of Jankasa. Did you think about the possibility you could be arrested when you were writing the article?

LB: As a matter of fact, I am surprised that it took them so long to come for me after my second arrest and imprisonment between July and October 2017. Both as a reporter and now the spokesman of the Southern Kaduna Peoples’ Union (SOKAPU), I have consistently reported on the evil going on in Southern Kaduna and reported stories that even made my colleagues fear for my life.

CSI: Did you have any positive experiences in prison, for example an encouraging conversation about faith or human rights with other prisoners?

LB: Yes, several of them. I met young people whose faith in Christ and their work brought them to jail. I met a pastor who was imprisoned with his wife after a Muslim girl converted to Christianity and the enraged parents and the powerful northern Nigerian Muslim group Jamaatu Nasril Islam accused them of kidnap and forced conversion.

CSI: Your court hearings were postponed several times. Did you think that you might have to stay in prison for years or were you always confident that you would be released on bail after a few months?

LB: From the beginning I knew I was not going to spend Christmas at home and I told my wife so the first day I was brought to court. As the days went by and they kept postponing my court appearances, I knew that one of two things thing was certain: I will come out of that gate as a free man or I will be taken out as a dead man.

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