“Calling these people herdsmen is absurd. These people have AK-47s, carry black flags, shout ‘Allahu Akbar,’ and go out and massacre people. This is not a farmer-herder clash. This is an Islamic jihad. And this opens the question: 30,000 people are armed. Where did these arms come from? Miyetti Allah is the armed wing, and the chairman of Miyetti Allah is the Sultan of Sokoto,” stated missionary Mike Arnold, a former U.S. mayor of Blanco City, Texas, founder of Africa Arise International. Arnold frequently speaks about the Christian genocide taking place in Nigeria.
Arnold accused both Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, the 20th Sultan of Sokoto, and the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), the Fulani herders’ advocacy group, of being responsible for the massacre of Christians in Nigeria. U.S. lawmakers have made similar accusations, alleging that MACBAN has funded, shielded, or provided political cover for militants.
MACBAN has been named in two proposed U.S. measures invoking terrorism-support law: the Nigeria Religious Freedom and Accountability Act of 2026 (H.R. 7457), introduced by Rep. Chris Smith and Rep. Riley Moore on Feb. 10, 2026, and House Resolution 860, sponsored by Smith and Rep. Bill Huizenga. Both measures recommend sanctioning MACBAN and Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore as Entities of Particular Concern under the Global Magnitsky framework based on allegations linking the organizations to the religiously motivated killing of Christians.
Neither measure has been enacted, and no U.S. government agency has designated MACBAN a terrorist organization. MACBAN President Baba Othman Ngelzarma rejected the proposed designation as “erroneous,” stating that no court in Nigeria or abroad has ever convicted or indicted the organization for criminal or terrorist activity.
The Sultan has served as President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) since November 2006 and is widely regarded as the spiritual leader of Nigeria’s Muslim population, estimated at more than 100 million people. He also serves as President-General of Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI), the umbrella body for Muslims in Northern Nigeria.
In November 2025, Mike Arnold, publicly accused the Sultan of being the “intelligent designer” of a “diabolical machine of jihad, genocide, conquest, displacement, and resource extraction,” calling him a “prime suspect” warranting investigation.
In public statements, Arnold has asked why the Sultan condemned Boko Haram but not the Fulani militants. Intersociety reported that Fulani jihadists and other Islamist militants massacred 7,087 Christians in Nigeria during the first 220 days of 2025, and that 125,009 Christians have been killed nationwide since 2009.
The Sultan and Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) have denounced Boko Haram, which attacked the Sultan’s religious authority and killed Muslims, including emirs. By contrast, the Sultan has consistently characterized violence between Fulani herders and farming communities as an economic conflict rather than a religious or sectarian one.
In response to Arnold’s accusations, on April 16, 2026, the Sultan’s media team, in a statement signed by Prince Bashir Adefaka, dissociated the Sultan from “any complicity in supporting violence or terrorist activities,” calling the claims “baseless, misleading, and unsupported by credible evidence” and warning of legal action under Nigerian and international law if the allegations continued.
Arnold responded by challenging the Sultan to pursue the threatened lawsuit, stating he had “asked questions” rather than made accusations, in a post reported by Church Times Nigeria.
Criticism of the Sultan has centered on his public silence following specific attacks on Christian communities. After U.S. and Nigerian airstrikes against ISIS-linked targets in Sokoto State on December 25, 2025, the Sultan issued no public statement, a fact noted by the Council on Foreign Relations.
The strikes, conducted by the USS Paul Ignatius using GPS-guided munitions, targeted camps linked to Islamic State’s Sahel Province and Lakurawa, which Nigeria has designated a terrorist organization. Lakurawa is an armed jihadist group operating primarily in northwestern Nigeria and the Sahel.
Originally entering the region as a vigilante force, the organization has since evolved into a hybrid threat that combines religious extremism with organized crime. It controls territory in Sokoto and Kebbi states, where it has imposed sharia taxation, including jizya, on Christian residents.
Social media critics have referred to the Sultan as the “Sultan of Silence,” questioning, without evidence, whether his lack of response to killings of Christians reflects complicity or fear of political repercussions.
A separate allegation concerns the Sultan’s alleged relationship with Bello Turji, a Zamfara-born bandit leader. Turji, whom the Nigerian government has designated a terrorist, operates across Zamfara, Sokoto, and Niger states.
Sokoto-based cleric Sheikh Murtala Bello made the allegation in a video reported by Neptune Prime. He claimed that officials in the Sokoto State government maintained regular contact with Turji. He also alleged that a committee formed under the Sultan’s leadership was intended to shield the Emirate and the state government from scrutiny over those alleged ties. The report pertains to the administration of former governor Aminu Tambuwal, who left office in 2023, rather than the current administration.
The Sultan has not publicly responded to the allegation. The claim originates from a single cleric’s video rather than a government investigation or judicial finding. Sheikh Murtala Bello holds no royal or governmental office and is not the Sultan of Sokoto.
The accusation that the Sultan bears responsibility for religiously targeted killing under his authority is not new. A 2016 claim, examined by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, held that then-President Muhammadu Buhari, a Fulani, was enabling the Islamization of Nigeria by permitting Fulani herdsmen to kill Christians. The Sultan rejected the claim, attributing herder-farmer violence to economic competition over land and cattle rather than religious motive, and describing perpetrators as “foreign terrorists.”
No government or judicial body has designated the Sultan, personally, as a terrorist, terrorism financier, or supporter of the killing of Christians. No U.S. Treasury, State Department, or Nigerian federal document was found naming him in that connection. No Nigerian court trial, indictment, or arraignment charging him with terrorism or terrorism support was found.
Post a Comment