News
Cults Target Nigerian Youth; Bible Clubs Offer Alternative
Emmanuel Sani Ujah said he recalls the night of February 3, 2014, as the day he “died,” but God brought him back. Ujah was involved in a car accident, which became the impetus for his Catch Them Young Bible Club.
“I was bedridden for a month,” he said. “It was during that time I truly understood what it meant to be given a second chance.”
Though as a teenager Ujah had a vibrant faith, he said disappointment dampened his spirit and love for God after he failed to secure admission to a university. Lying immobile in the hospital, 21-year-old Ujah thought about his earlier excitement for his faith.
Convinced that God had spared his life for a purpose, Ujah decided to start a club to help children develop and keep their fire for God into adulthood. Months later, he started the first club with six children in Abuja, Nigeria.
Young Nigerians like Ujah can face many challenges to faith. Cult groups, street gangs, and internet fraudsters in Nigeria target high school and university students for recruitment. Apathy and social influences can also pull them away from the church. So Christian clubs are fighting to capture children’s hearts first.
“There’s a big problem with the sense of belonging,” pastor Fortune Agula Musa said. “One of the things missing in church is that children between the ages of 12 and 18 don’t know where to fit. They are not children anymore, and they are not adults.”
In Nigeria, cults and fraud networks recruit and manipulate teens by pretending to care about issues that affect them, standing up for them against injustice, and offering friendship to vulnerable students. Cult groups in Nigeria often have ties to organized crime, according to research by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Students pulled into these organizations must show loyalty to the groups and may engage in illegal acts. In some cases, clashes between cults groups turn deadly.
Musa’s church, Throne Room Glory Gwagwalada in Federal Capital Territory, Nigeria, started The Oxygen Club for 12-to-19-year-olds. The pastor formed the Bible club because of his own experiences: In 2004, a cult attempted to recruit him during his freshman year at the Federal University of Agriculture in Benue State.
Musa said his membership in a Christian club called All for Him saved him. The club gave new students on campus an orientation and warned them about the signs of cult recruitment.
Because of this, Musa recognized the cult’s “courtship” for what it was. First, members of the cult invited him and other first-year students to a party for freshmen. But that party was the beginning of the recruitment process.
“It was supposed to be like a riverside party, but when it got late in the night, they put off the generator,” Musa said. “And then it became a recruitment drive. They called it blending—they blend by beating them badly.”
Musa chose not to go, but students who attended told him about it later. Some students resisted the blending when they realized the cult had tricked them into attending a recruitment event. Musa said those in the cult beat the resisters especially hard, while those who showed a willingness to join were not so badly beaten.
Instead of getting involved in cult activities, Musa directed his energy into dance, drama, music, and learning at All for Him. This helped him remain “grounded in faith,” an experience he tries to replicate for students attending The Oxygen Club.
In addition to dealing with cult groups, Nigerian students face challenges similar to many in the US. Exposure to peer pressure, to new academic viewpoints, and to different religions in high school or college can lead underprepared students to question or to leave Christianity. Apathy toward faith can settle in as other priorities clamor for attention.
In the US, 35 percent of adults have switched religions between childhood and adulthood. Although changing religions is less common in Nigeria, a growing number of young people are moving from Christianity to traditional African religions. Research by George Barna indicates that an individual’s worldview sets around age 13—even if religious affiliation shifts later—so early discipleship is crucial.
“When children are taught the way of the Lord early in life, they will avoid anything that will lead them astray,” Ujah said.
Ujah competes with cult recruitment by engaging Bible-club members in a variety of activities. The club builds biblical knowledge through quizzes. The group also holds weekly meetings that give members a time and place to talk about daily challenges, and it provides mentorship from older members. Ujah also uses his background in tech to teach practical topics such as basic technology skills.
An early member of the club, Ashiofe Lakoju, said the club helped him shape and sustain Christian values. Ujah taught lessons on peer pressure and sexual purity, in addition to regular Bible lessons, to young men in the club.
“He gives us Scriptures to back up every teaching he takes us through,” Lakoju said.
Lakoju credited discipleship from Catch Them Young and from his church for helping him when curiosity about sex led him into pornography and anger issues resulted in fights during high school. He remembered that “the Scriptures say [to] guard your heart with all diligence.”
Ujah’s efforts have not always yielded success. He said one of his most failures was when one teen girl became pregnant with her boyfriend despite Ujah’s discipleship. “That incident still haunts me to this day,” he said.
He still blames himself, saying he feels he should have done more to guide her. Though more than 33 children have graduated from the club, Ujah still remembers the one he feels he let down.
“It’s a wound I carry and a lesson that keeps me watchful and prayerful over every child now,” Ujah told CT.
The club is now discipling 30 children and has expanded to include a group in Lokoja, Nigeria, but Ujah said lack of teachers presents a real challenge.
“It limits how far we can reach,” Ujah said. “With more willing hands and hearts, we could touch even more young lives.”
Christianitytoday.com
News
BREAKING: KWAM 1 Writes Ogun Govt, Accuses Fusengbuwa Ruling House of Plot to Exclude Him From Awujale Selection
Popular Fuji musician and Olori Omooba of Ijebu land, Alhaji Wasiu Ayinde Marshal, widely known as KWAM1, has written to Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, alleging that he is being deliberately sidelined from the ongoing process to select the next Awujale of Ijebu land.
Ayinde, in a petition dated January 8, 2026, accused the Fusengbuwa ruling house next in line to produce the monarch of taking actions that allegedly violate the Chieftaincy Declaration and the Obas and Chiefs Law of Ogun State. He claimed the moves were designed to disenfranchise him from contesting for the revered throne.
The letter, written on his behalf by his lawyer, Dr. Wahab Shittu, SAN, was addressed to Governor Abiodun and outlined what the Fuji star described as procedural irregularities in the selection process.
According to the petition, the contest for the Awujale stool has attracted over 60 aspirants, with Ayinde formally declaring his interest. However, the Fusengbuwa family has maintained that KWAM1 is not a member of the ruling house and is therefore ineligible to participate in the exercise.
Before writing to the governor, Ayinde had approached the Ogun State High Court sitting in Ijebu Ode, seeking an interim injunction to restrain Governor Abiodun and six others from continuing with the selection process. The court, however, dismissed the application, ruling that it lacked merit. The musician later withdrew the suit without publicly stating his reasons.
In his latest letter, Ayinde disclosed that the Ijebu Ode Local Government, via a letter dated January 6, 2026, signed by its Secretary, Oke Adebanjo, had approved the commencement of the selection process by the ruling house.
He expressed surprise that while members of the Fusengbuwa family were preparing for a general meeting, the family’s Public Relations Officer, Prince Adeleye Lateef Ademuyiwa, allegedly issued a notice directing aspirants to collect nomination forms and appear before a screening committee.
The screening committee, according to Ayinde, is chaired by Prince Alhaji Mitiu Adenuga. He further alleged that the directive fixed the nomination exercise for Monday, January 12, 2026, while also stating that the process would be conducted by delegates to be selected at a meeting scheduled for January 10, 2026.
Ayinde argued that the sequence of events was confusing, contradictory, and contrary to established laws guiding traditional chieftaincy matters in Ogun State.
As of the time of filing this report, neither the Ogun State Government nor the Fusengbuwa ruling house had officially responded to the allegations.
Lagos Reporters will continue to monitor developments surrounding the Awujale succession process and provide updates as the story unfolds.
News
“Do Not Test Trump’s Resolve”: US Issues Fresh Threat To Nigeria
A United States Congressman, Rep. Riley M. Moore, has warned Nigeria not to take the resolve of President Donald Trump with levity, adding that the US president remained steadfast in his bid to protect Christians in Nigeria, while reiterating the false allegation that Christians have continued to face prosecution in the West African country.
Moore’s warning came days after the US president issued another military action in Nigeria, adding that he would not be carrying out a single operation in Nigeria if the alleged Christian persecution continues in the country.
The threat came days after the United States launched a military strike in Sokoto, targeting some terrorist hideouts in the country. The strike affected other states such as Niger and Kwara.
However, Trump, in an interview with The New York Times, published on Thursday, January 8, while responding to questions about a US military strike carried out in Nigeria on Christmas Day, said: “I’d love to make it a one-time strike. But if they continue to kill Christians, it will be a many-time strike,” Trump said.
Moore took to social media to reiterate Trump’s second threat to the country and warned Nigeria against overlooking the threat. His warning did not sit well with many Nigerians, who took to the comment section of the post and expressed their views about his claim. Below are some of their comments:
Omolayo accused the US of bombing a Christian country, Venezuela, and stealing its oil: “What about Venezuela, which is 80% Christian? Trump doesn’t care about Christians, but I grudgingly welcome his presence in the northern part of Nigeria.”
Umar Yusuf Dayyabu knocked the US: “The same US that just finished bombing a Christian country (Venezuela) and is currently stealing their oil is now claiming to want to save Christians in Nigeria. The US only wants our natural resources, that’s it.”
Amadu Yahuza accused the Trump administration of imperialism: “Let’s be clear: if the U.S. is claiming to defend Christians in Nigeria but simultaneously tightens visa access for Nigerians broadly, including Christians, that is not solidarity, it’s hypocrisy. Trump’s statements about Nigerian Christians are political branding, while visa restrictions, federal actions, and international messaging are geopolitical moves.”
Garvy accused the lawmaker of turning a blind eye to the killing of Christians in the US: “I guess you were blind to Christians murdered right in front of your nose in Salt Lake City, and you were blind to that. Suppose their lives don’t matter, right?”
You can read more reactions on X here:
President Trump is serious about his steadfast support to protecting our brothers and sisters in Christ who continue to face persecution in Nigeria.
Do not test @POTUS' resolve. https://t.co/vd8t0LXdKc
— Rep. Riley M. Moore (@RepRileyMoore) January 9, 2026
News
Buhari’s Ex-Minister Pantami Breaks Silence Over Alleged Wedding Plan With Aisha Buhari
False claims linking former Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Ali Pantami, with former First Lady, Hajiya Aisha Buhari, have been dismissed after an independent verification found the story to be entirely fabricated.
The rumour, which spread rapidly across Facebook and X, alleged that the two were planning a marriage and circulated alongside an image described online as a pre wedding photograph.
The post gained wide traction after several users pointed to Aisha Buhari’s completion of her Islamic mourning period following the death of former President Muhammadu Buhari in July 2025.
Public figures also reshared the image, drawing thousands of comments and reactions and fuelling speculation among social media users.
A fact check carried out by PRNigeria found no credible evidence supporting the claim. Reviews of the verified social media accounts of both Pantami and Aisha Buhari showed no statements or references linked to any marriage plan. Searches across reputable news platforms also returned no matching reports.
Further forensic analysis subjected the viral photograph to InVid verification and artificial intelligence detection tools. The assessment confirmed that the image was digitally manipulated and generated through artificial means, with faces inserted into a wedding-themed template.
Pantami addressed the allegation directly in a phone conversation with PRNigeria.
“It is shocking that anyone would fabricate such a rumour. President Buhari is a father figure to us, and we regard his widow as a mother. The claim is baseless and impossible,” he said.
Bashir Ahmad, a former media aide to the late president, also rejected the story on his Facebook page in Hausa.
“The story being circulated that Hajiya Aisha Buhari has agreed to marry Sheikh Isa Ali Pantami is an outright lie. There is absolutely no truth in it whatsoever,” Ahmad wrote.
Additional context emerged from a recently released biography titled From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari, authored by Dr. Charles Omole and launched at the State House in December 2025. The book records Aisha Buhari as stating clearly that she has no intention of remarrying, citing family responsibilities and a desire for a quieter public life.
The former president died in London on July 13, 2025, at the age of 82. He married Aisha Buhari in 1989 and is survived by his wife, children and grandchildren. Speculation around her personal life increased online after she completed the traditional mourning period in November 2025.
-
Business19 hours agoBREAKING: Petrol Depot Owners Crash Prices To Cheapest; Details Emerge
-
News2 days agoBuhari’s Ex-Minister Pantami Breaks Silence Over Alleged Wedding Plan With Aisha Buhari
-
News1 day ago“Do Not Test Trump’s Resolve”: US Issues Fresh Threat To Nigeria
-
Entertainment24 hours agoSO SAD: Actress and Content Creator Sunshine D!es After Surgery; Details of Last Moment Trends
-
Lifestyle2 days agoChimamanda: Heartbreaking Details About What Killed Author’s Late Son Emerge
-
Sports2 days agoAFCON: Nigerian Billionaire Splashes Dollars On Super Eagles
-
Politics7 hours agoFCT Minister Wike Reacts To Call For Tinubu To Sack Him
-
News18 hours agoBREAKING: KWAM 1 Writes Ogun Govt, Accuses Fusengbuwa Ruling House of Plot to Exclude Him From Awujale Selection
