Former Presidential aide and APC chieftain, Bashir Ahmad, has criticised the claims made by U.S. lawmaker Riley Moore regarding findings from an Internally Displaced Persons camp in Benue State, describing Moore’s comments as biased. Moore, who represents West Virginia’s Second District, was part of a congressional delegation that recently visited Nigeria to investigate allegations of a Christian genocide and toured an IDP camp in Benue.
In a statement released Tuesday night, the U.S. congressman claimed that over 600,000 Christians had been displaced in Benue State alone. He said victims, allegedly forced from their ancestral homes by what he termed Islamic extremists, shared harrowing stories of killings and violence—accounts he said would stay with him for the rest of his life.
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Reacting to the claims, Bashir, a former presidential spokesperson, accused Moore of failing to present a balanced picture of the humanitarian situation in Nigeria. In a post on his official X handle, he questioned why the American lawmaker did not extend his visit to other parts of the country where displaced Muslims are also taking refuge in IDP camps.
“The fact that there are IDP camps in Benue doesn’t mean there are none in other parts of the country. Had it been he wasn’t already biased in his outlook, he would have made himself available to visit other places and see the situation for himself,” Bashir said.
