Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has dismissed an article by the Telegraph which claims his administration is targeting Christians and deepening the divide between the religious group and Muslims.
Garba Shehu, the presidential spokesperson issued a statement in Abuja claiming that the London-based paper's article was "untrue and without foundation."
According to Pew Research Center, Nigeria has the largest Christian population of any country in Africa. The Christian population has grown from 21.4% in 1953 to 49.3% in 2010.
"To suggest his government as deepening Muslim-Christian division is not only untrue, but plays into the hands of Boko Haram who wish to divide Nigerians along religious lines," he said.
"Fighting this group is key priority of President Buhari's Administration."
He also stressed that the President had been treating all Nigerians equally irrespective of their religious or geo-political backgrounds.
Shehu noted that the international community has lauded the President's work and determination of defeating terrorism within Nigeria and the entire Lake Chad Basin.
He reiterated that the Buhari-led government has no thoughts about diverting relief funds for the refugees or IDP camps for any other purpose.
The spokesperson also termed a report published on July 30th by the same news provider as equally untrue.
Aid agencies are warning that an estimated 50,000 children are facing death by starvation in northern Nigeria this summer as a result of the Nigerian government's faltering campaign to defeat Boko Haram Islamist militants.
Contradicting this, Shehu said that "the government was doing everything within its limited resources to address the medical, health and nutritional challenges in the IDPs, as the humanitarian situation in these camps is real."
He has invited the Telegraph to Nigeria to get first hand information about the problems within the nation.