President Bola Tinubu’s spokesman, Daniel Bwala, disclosed
this during an interview on TVC’s Your View.

This comes as President Donald Trump of the United States,
US, has designated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern over reports of
genocide against Christians.

However, Bwala said: “Since that IPOB started this thing as
far back as 2016, amplifying the false narrative that there is a genocide
against the Christians in Nigeria.

Those that are killed are more of the Islamic faith than of
the Christian faith. And government will be irresponsible if all we sit down,
we’ll be talking about how many are killed Christians, how many are killed
Muslims.

That’s why we’ve maintained consistently the position that
it is criminal elements, and we are joining and forcing a common force so we
can find them; we don’t profile the killing.

Now, those who profile the killing actually are the people
who have an agenda against the Nigerian state. And this whole hoax of Christian
genocide started from IPOB.

There was an investigative report that was conducted last
week. I think Arise News mirrored that in their Stories Trending, which says
that IPOB started this thing as far back as 2016, amplifying the false
narrative that there is a genocide against the Christians in Nigeria.

Unfortunately, that fake news, that falsehood, made it to
the ears of senators in the United States, like Senator Ted Cruz and
Representative Randy Moore, and the rest of them. This is the kind of quagmire
that we have found ourselves in.

But dialogue helps in deepening the conversation and
identifying the problem. First, we and the American government have a lot of
things that we have shared interests in.

So this is how you start a diplomacy conversation, find
areas where you both agree, and then you realize that the areas you disagree
are not as much as the areas you agree, and you’ll find a solution to it.”