YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon – A disturbing investigation says governments in Nigeria are facilitating Fulani jihadists as they steal Christian farmland, and murder its populations.

For a long time, there have been reports of Fulani Jihadist persecution of Christians in Nigeria – focused largely on the Middle Belt – but the investigation carried out by Catholic criminologist and Director of the Catholic inspired NGO, International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law, (Intersociety), Emeka Umeagbalasi says the problem is even worse than initially thought.

Using federal funds and suspected external jihadist financing, the project reportedly employs multiple deceptive methods – including disguised ranching schemes (RUGA), land procurement, and state government-led land ceding programs – targeting communal lands, often secured through coercion and inducements of local leaders.

“Fulani Jihadism Conquest Project in Igbo Land and the entire Five South-East States is openly and undeniably coordinated by Federal Government holding brief for Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen and their Patrons,” the report states.

“The Project is also heavily funded using Federal public funds and suspected external funds believed to have allegedly come from ‘World Jihad Fund’, alleged to have been rooted into Nigeria through Islamic Development Bank,” it continues.

The report notes that it is pure cynicism for the government to be enabling land acquisition for the jihadist Fulani herdsmen in Nigeria’s South East, given that the region hasn’t even got enough land to satisfy its ever-expanding population.

The entire South-East landmass (29,525 square kilometers) is dwarfed by Niger State alone (76,363 square kilometers), which could reportedly accommodate all of Nigeria’s Fulani cattle.

Yet, the project is pushed forward. In Enugu State, a large farm settlement in Elugwu-Achi, on the Oji River, is allegedly being cleared and fenced by the state government for a disguised federal cattle ranch, despite initial resistance from communities. Similarly, a vast expanse of communal land between Aguata and Orumba in Anambra is strongly suspected to have been ceded.

The inquest posits that South-East governors are trapped by two key conditions allegedly orchestrated by the “Caliphate”: Being planted into office through electoral rigging and militarization, and securing their tenure through manipulated election tribunals and courts.

“That was how Governor Alex Otti of Abia State got trapped and allegedly forced into compliance after having won the poll on the field. He was said to have nearly allegedly got removed by electoral courts using legal technicalities,” said Emeka Umeagbalasi in comments to Crux.

“The South East is already saturated by the jihadists,” he added.

“The Islamization of the South East is no longer a false narrative, it is now real,” he stated.

He worries that the fate of Benue State could befall Anambra after the governor, Charles Chukwuma Soludo announced that Anambra state is now a Fulani RUGA or Ranching State.

“You know the implications. Some years ago, the people of Benue State were begged to allow Fulanis to settle just for them to rear cattle and nothing more, but look at what is happening in that state now,” Umeagbalasi told Crux.

He recalled the latest massacre of Christians to explain why the presence of jihadist Fulani herdsmen is a present danger to Christians in Nigeria.

On June 13 and 14, Fulani Jihadists herdsmen stormed the locality of Yelwata in Benue State, in the middle of the night, killing over 220 people, most of them Christians.

“So those people aren’t a people to be allowed to settle anywhere within your community,” Umeagbalasi said.

“I don’t know why the governor of Anambra State – a Christian state, has invited the Fulanis to come and settle and start attacking Christians now or in the near future, the same way they turned against Christians in Benue State,” he added.

He expressed worry that the entire government structure was involved in the conquest by Fulani herdsmen of land in the South East.

“The Federal government is Funding the National Fulani Ranching or RUGA program. The Federal government has also coerced Anambra State into joining them. Anambra State on its part has coerced some communities into ceding some communal lands to Anambra State which will be transferred to the Federal government and from there it will be transferred to Fulani Jihadists,” the Director of Intersociety told Crux.

He said private ranching initiatives were also being used to Islamize Nigeria’s South East.

“There is the example of Alhj Sali Friday Nnamane. He was a Christian some years ago, but was taken to the northern State of Zamfara where he was Islamized and equipped with multi-billion Naira worth of business interest. He returned to Enugu State with that wealth and is now engaged in massive conversion of locals to Islam,” he explained.

“Right now, the South East is sitting on a keg of gunpowder,” Umeagbalasi said, and accused not only Federal and State governments, but also the security forces of being complicit in the Islamization agenda.