Nigerian police have admitted that gunmen abducted worshippers during mass last Sunday in northern Kaduna state after initially dismissing reports of the attack as “totally false”. The reversal follows claims from church leaders and local officials that large numbers of people were taken from several churches.
A senior Christian clergy member and a village head said more than 160 people were seized in Kurmin Wali village. A security report prepared for the United Nations noted the kidnapping of more than 100 people at multiple churches.
Kaduna state police and two senior government officials had earlier denied any abduction, saying security officers visited the area and found no proof of any kidnapping.
But late Tuesday, national police spokesman Benjamin Hundeyin said an “abduction” had occurred and that security operations were under way “with a clear focus on locating and safely rescuing the victims and restoring calm to the area”.
He said earlier remarks by police and other officials in Kaduna were “intended to prevent unnecessary panic while facts were being confirmed”.
“Those remarks, which have since been widely misinterpreted, were not a denial of the incident but a measured response pending confirmation of details from the field, including the identities and number of those affected,” he said.
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Names put forward
“Subsequent verification from operational units and intelligence sources has confirmed that the incident did occur,” Hundeyin said.
A Christian grouping in northern Nigeria has submitted a list of people seized during the attack.
“We did produce the names of over 177 people and there is no contest that it was real,” Reverend Joseph Hayab, head of the Christian Association of Nigeria for the country’s north, told the French news agency AFP.
“Such a number couldn’t have been taken and you think you can bury it just like that.”
He said there was also evidence of “those who escaped even with injury”.
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Pressure and violence
The attack is the latest in a wave of mass kidnappings targeting both Christians and Muslims in Nigeria. Armed gangs, known locally as bandits, frequently carry out mass kidnappings for ransom and loot villages, mainly in the northern and central parts of the country.
In November, armed gangs seized more than 300 students and teachers from a Catholic school in Niger state. Fifty escaped and the rest were released in two batches weeks later.
US President Donald Trump has focused on insecurity in Nigeria, putting Abuja under diplomatic pressure.
In late December, the United States launched strikes on what it and the Nigerian government said were militants linked to the Islamic State group in Sokoto state, with Nigeria saying it approved the strikes.
Nigeria has also struck a $750,000 per month deal with a US firm to lobby Washington to help Abuja communicate “its actions to protect... Christian communities and (maintain) US support in countering west African jihadist groups”, according to disclosure forms filed with the US Department of Justice.
(with newswires)
