A member of the Congress, Riley Moore, has dismissed a claim by Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, that only 177 Christians were killed in the last five years.

Earlier, Tuggar spoke when he appeared as a guest on Piers Morgan’s show to challenge the Christian genocide allegations, clarify figures, provide context, and address Nigeria’s complex security situation.

During the show, which was aired on Tuesday, Morgan presented figures from the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) alleging over 50,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria since 2009 and 18,000 churches destroyed.

However, Tuggar, dismissed the figures as inaccurate, challenging the religious framing and said that the government does not tally deaths by faith and views all victims as Nigerians first.

Meanwhile, at a congressional hearing in Washington DC on Thursday on the matter, the US Congressman stated that he was puzzled at the disparity in figures.

According to the lawmaker, he was especially concerned, as the Nigerian delegation, currently in Washington to address the matter, also disputed the figures.

“I recently saw the foreign minister was in some interview, I think it was Piers Morgan, and it was the same thing when they (the delegation) came here and some of us spoke to them, just disputing these numbers.

“I think the foreign minister said in the last five years there’s only 177 Christians have been killed.

“I don’t think there’s anybody believes that, and I don’t think that it’s necessarily constructive on their part to try to downplay what’s happening here,” he stated.