Wardesk News | Amos Tauna | Nov. 12, 2019
Northern Nigeria has for the past four years been a free zone for kidnapping and banditry with the Church being the major casaulty. Thousands have been abducted with millions of Naria being paid as ransom.
In Kaduna state, Northwest of the country alone, about 500 people have been abducted while about N400million has been paid as ransom to the kidnappers.
Clergymen have become targets for abduction with the conviction that the Church has so much money to pay as ransom the moment any Church leader is abducted, while many have been killed in the process.
This development has led to the closure of so many Churches especially those located in communities along the Kaduna-Abuja road have been closed as people living in those villages have since relocated following the activities of kidnappers.
The chairman, Kaduna state chapter of Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Rev. Joseph Hayab, while lamenting the situation said, “It is sad to know that the Church alone, from our statistics -ECWA Church, Baptist Church, Anglican Church, Catholic Church and many other Churches in Kaduna whose members have been kidnapped, have had to coughed out between N200,000 to N8 million to kidnappers to secure their release.