Franklin Graham drew attention to Rev. Ezekiel Dachomo after nine members of the pastor’s family were killed on July 12 in Plateau State. Dachomo says the same Fulani militia that attacked his family compound has now sent him a threat, turning one massacre into a continuing personal danger.
Rev. Ezekiel Dachomo said the dead included a two-month-old baby, and that the attack took place in the Riyom district of Plateau State. He posted on X this past week that Fulani herdsmen sent him and members of his church a threatening letter, and wrote: “Now they say I will be next. But I ask the world, what is my crime?”
Plateau State attack details
Dachomo said the attackers arrived asking, “where is the father of this house?” and then said, “Today, you will learn a hard lesson,” before opening fire indiscriminately. He said the killings happened at a family compound, and the loss of nine relatives gives the attack a direct family count rather than an abstract toll.
He also said the violence is part of a longer pattern. By the end of 2025, Dachomo said he had conducted over 70 mass burials of Christians, a figure that points to repeated funerals rather than a single episode in Plateau State.
Rev. Ezekiel Dachomo and X
This past week, Dachomo used X to say he had received the threatening letter and to describe why he keeps speaking publicly. He posted: “A few days ago, Fulani herdsmen sent a threatening letter to me and to members of my church. It’s message was terrifying. They vowed to attack me and kill me soon, just as they killed nine of my relatives.”
He added: “I know what it means to stand before grieving families whose only crime was refusing to deny Jesus Christ.” He also wrote: “Is my crime that I tell the stories of persecuted Christians in Nigeria, so the world will not forget them?”
Trump highlighted the pastor on social media
President Donald Trump highlighted the pastor on social media, widening attention beyond Nigeria’s Middle Belt. The State Department described to Digital “a shocking level of violence against Christians,” while Judd Saul said Equipping the Persecuted has documented overwhelming evidence of persecution in Nigeria.
Dachomo’s account leaves one pressing issue for Nigerian authorities: whether anyone has been identified or apprehended for the July 12 attack on the family compound. For now, the pastor says the threat has not stopped with the killings, and he fears he will be next.
