{"id":66255,"date":"2025-05-21T20:53:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T20:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=66255"},"modified":"2025-05-21T20:53:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T20:53:10","slug":"protesters-storm-abuja-demand-end-to-online-attacks-on-christian-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/05\/21\/protesters-storm-abuja-demand-end-to-online-attacks-on-christian-leaders\/","title":{"rendered":"Protesters Storm Abuja, Demand End to Online Attacks on Christian Leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Patrick Idowu<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Dozens of young Nigerians under the banner of the Concerned Christian Youth Forum (CCYF), took to the streets of Abuja on Wednesday, protesting what they described as a sustained campaign of online harassment against Christian leaders across the country.<\/p>\n<p>Gathering at the Unity Fountain, the peaceful demonstrators displayed placards with bold messages such as \u201cStop Online Bullying of Pastors\u201d and \u201cRespect Religious Freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They called for urgent intervention to curb what they termed a growing wave of hate speech, defamation and digital intimidation directed at prominent men of God.<\/p>\n<p>Addressing the crowd, CCYF convener, Adama James Paul, decried what he called \u201ca coordinated and well-funded attempt\u201d to tarnish the image of Christian leaders and stir religious discord.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are alarmed by the persistent slander and smear campaigns targeting our pastors and faith leaders. These attacks are not random. They are part of a bigger agenda to weaken our spiritual and national unity,\u201d Paul stated.<\/p>\n<p>He further accused certain activists and content creators-naming Omoyele Sowore among them-of fueling tension through deliberate misinformation and incitement online.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is no longer just criticism. It is a dangerous form of religious intolerance masked as digital activism,\u201d Paul added.<\/p>\n<p>The group urged the federal government, media and civil society groups to rise against what they described as religious persecution in cyberspace, warning that silence could embolden further polarization.<\/p>\n<p>They also called on Nigerians of all religions to unite against digital campaigns aimed at sowing division, emphasizing the need to preserve the country\u2019s peace and religious harmony.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Patrick Idowu Dozens of young Nigerians under the banner of the Concerned Christian Youth Forum (CCYF), took to the streets of Abuja on Wednesday, protesting what they described as a sustained campaign of online harassment against Christian leaders across the country. Gathering at the Unity Fountain, the peaceful demonstrators displayed placards with bold messages [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":66256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-66255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66255"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66257,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66255\/revisions\/66257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}