Two Catholic priests from Nigeria have expressed grave concern about the worsening security situation in the West African nation, noting that recent activity by the less-known Lakurawa jihadist group in the northwest part of the country spells trouble for the region still battling widespread Boko Haram insurgency.

The Lakurawa jihadist group is said to have first emerged in Northwest Nigeria in 2018 when the group began helping locals fight armed gangs known as bandits.

The group, which is said to be an offshoot of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), appeared again after the July 2023 coup in Niger in herding communities along the Nigeria-Niger border, having gradually turned militant.

Locals knew they were dealing with yet another deadly jihadist group when, on Nov. 8, the group attacked a rural community in Nigeria's Northwest Kebbi State and hacked 15 people to death. The group also injured several villagers and made away with stolen cattle.

In an interview with ACI Africa on Nov. 20, Father George Ehusani, founder of the Psycho-Spiritual Institute (PSI) and Executive Director of the Lux Terra Leadership Foundation, expressed concern that the new jihadist group could be slowly trying to make Nigeria’s Northwest region its stronghold, a situation the priest said will compound the region’s insecurity.

“We have insecurity coming from different directions,” Ehusani said when ACI Africa asked him about what ails Nigeria. “We have a new terrorist group that arose about two weeks ago in the Northwestern part of Nigeria. The group is linked to the Islamic State, and we hear the members are coming from Niger,” he said.

Ehusani explained that the Lakurawa members have already been accused of kidnappings, killings, and imposing stringent sharia laws upon locals.

“The Lakurawa invades an entire village, imposes taxes on the people, and begins to run the society like a government does,” he told ACI Africa, adding, “We are in serious trouble. The Lakurawas are even preventing locals from going to their farms, forcing them to work on jihadists’ farms instead.”

The new jihadist group came promising to protect locals against armed attackers, Ehusani recalled. “The people are left with no option but to pay taxes in exchange for protection. They are a terrorist group who are paid to protect villagers from their rival terrorist groups.”

Ehusani is running PSI, an initiative that helps train and support psycho-spiritual trauma healing experts in a country that is witnessing a rise in trauma victims due to widespread jihadism and other forms of violence.

Ehusani, who provides therapy to previously kidnapped priests in Nigeria shared more with ACI Africa about the existence of rival terrorist groups in Nigeria.

“Once, a priest who had been kidnapped and released told me that among the bandits and jihadists, there are different competing groups. He said that the fact that one bandit group frees their hostage doesn’t mean that the hostage is free. One may be freed and be immediately kidnapped by another waiting rival bandit group,” he said. 

Ehusani spoke to ACI Africa during his visit to PSI’s campus in Kenya. He was accompanied by Father Hyacinth Ichoku, Vice Chancellor of Veritas University Abuja, the Catholic University in Nigeria that has accepted affiliation with PSI.

Father Hyacinth Ichoku, Vice Chancellor of Veritas University Abuja, the Catholic University in Nigeria. Credit: Fatther George Ehusani

Shedding more light on the origin of the Lakurawa group, Ichoku told ACI Africa, “A few weeks ago, some soldiers were killed in Chad. The President of Chad wanted to dislodge everyone that was involved in the killing of the soldiers. This is what led to the birth of this group.”

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He said that some of the militants who crossed over to Nigeria from Chad formed part of the Lakurawa group that he said have become “a nightmare” to the people in Northwest Nigeria.

Ichoku said that the Lakurawa were presenting themselves as “saviors” among the communities that have for decades been terrorized by Boko Haram and other jihadist groups.

“Everyone knows that this is no savior but just another terrorist group, seeking to destroy the others for it to dominate and to continue terrorizing locals,” he said.

“The group is still small yet very potent,” he further said, and expressed hope that Nigerian authorities can “nip it in the bud.”

Expressing the challenge that Nigeria might face is stemming the new Lakurawa group, Ichoku said, “The military is facing a multi-faced war in the north particularly, where it is fighting different terrorist groups. In such a situation, any military tends to spread the strengths across different groups.”

In the Nov. 20 interview, Ehusani also spoke about the growing farmer-herder crisis especially in places where the Fulanis go in Nigeria.

The challenge, he said, is that there are Fulanis in the countries neighboring Nigeria including Mali, Niger, Chad, and Burkina Faso.

“These people speak the same language and are over 90 percent Muslim. They are linked by both tribe and religion. They believe that they can go anywhere without anyone standing in their way,” Ehusani said.

“The challenge is that we don’t have any serious borders here. When a Fulani comes to Nigeria, he may walk around without anyone noticing that he is not Nigerian. And the immigration officials at the border can’t stop their fellow Fulanis from crossing,” he said.

Some of the Fulanis who have been found to be hostile towards Christian farmers have tribesmen and fellow Muslims in security agencies who give them protection, Ehusani said.

He criticized President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government for not showing seriousness in the fight against terrorists.

“At the moment, the government doesn’t even have credibility. You need a high credibility as government, whereby people accept you as government to be able to address this evil,” he said.

In the Nov. 20 interview, Ehusani expressed regret that Nigerians have also become more loyal to their religion and ethnic groups than to the country. “Some would protect known terrorists that are of their religion and ethnicity,” he said.

For him, insecurity in Nigeria will never end as long as there are high-level people benefitting from it. He said he finds it difficult to believe that it is the kidnappers “in the bush” solely benefitting from the kidnappings that are on the rise in most parts of Nigeria.

“There is no way that the boys in the bush are the ones benefitting from the huge amounts money they collect as ransom to release their kidnapped victims. It is a cartel in which higher people are involved, and it is them who are getting the bigger chunk of the money,” he said.

Ehusani said that Nigeria has a long way to go in the fight against jihadism and other forms of banditry.

“We need a form of revolution, a certain kind of complete overhaul of the system, because as things are, the criminals have taken over; they have taken over at every level,” he added.