A presidential aide says the American missionary was removed from Nigeria over divisive remarks. Barbir says it is false, reckless and unsupported by any official paper trail.
The Tinubu administration has been plunged into a fresh credibility storm after American missionary Alex Barbir flatly rejected claims that he was deported from Nigeria.
Barbir said the government’s version of events was false, misleading and politically motivated.
He insisted there was no deportation order, no official removal letter and no embassy notification.
According to him, he was still in Nigeria just hours before he boarded his flight.
He also said security personnel were attached to him during his mission, which he argued made the deportation claim even more questionable.
In a fiery response, Barbir accused the government of trying to deceive Nigerians and the international community.
He said the claim that he was expelled from the country was a lie and demanded proof from the authorities.
Barbir also rejected comments attributed to Abiodun Essiet, the Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Community Engagement in the North Central.
Essiet had earlier claimed during a television interview that Barbir had been removed from Nigeria over what she described as inflammatory and divisive remarks.
She said the government acted because his words allegedly stirred tension and could deepen religious unrest.
Essiet linked his speech in Jos, Plateau State, to violence that followed, and justified the alleged removal as a preventive step.
She even drew a comparison with Rwanda, warning that Nigeria must not allow language that could fuel communal conflict.
But Barbir has pushed back hard.
He said he had never spoken with Essiet, did not know her, and had not received any official communication from her or the Nigerian authorities.
He also claimed the US Embassy had denied any such deportation process.
For Barbir, the issue is simple.
If Nigeria truly removed him, he says, there should be a documented process that can be shown to the world.
Without that, he argues, the government is only spreading falsehoods.
The row has now become more than a personal clash.
It has turned into a public test of the Tinubu administration’s handling of security, diplomacy and information control.
If Essiet’s claim is accurate, then the government will need to explain the legal and diplomatic basis for the action.
If Barbir is right, then a senior presidential aide has publicly made a serious allegation without the evidence needed to stand it up.
That leaves the Presidency in a difficult position.
Nigeria is already battling intense scrutiny over insecurity, religious tension and repeated accusations that official responses are weak, opaque or politically selective.
Barbir has long been one of the administration’s loudest foreign critics on insecurity.
He has repeatedly accused the Tinubu government of failing to protect communities across the country.
His intervention in this controversy therefore lands at a highly charged moment.
For now, the conflicting accounts have left the public with more questions than answers.
Was Barbir deported?
Was he quietly asked to leave?
Or has the government been caught in a statement that cannot be backed by a proper paper trail?
Until Abuja speaks with clarity, the controversy will continue to hang over the Presidency like a threat the government cannot easily brush aside.
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