Gunmen Abduct Another Pastor, Son in Kaduna

John Shiklam in Kadun

Gunmen have abducted another pastor and his son in Angwan Makiri, near Udawa in Chikun Local Government area of Kaduna State, demanding a N20 million naira ransom.

Elisha Numan, the Pastor of Nagarta Baptist Church in the community was taken away at about 2.00 a.m. on Wednesday alongside his son, Emmanuel, who was later released to go and mobilised for the payment of ransom.

The bandits, who were said to have arrived the community in large number, forced their way into the pastor’s residence, after firing several shots.

This was coming less than two weeks after Jeremiah Omolewa, a pastor of the Living Faith Church in Angwan Romi, Kaduna, was killed along the Kaduna-Abuja road, while his wife was abducted. She was later released after the payment of undisclosed amount money as ransom.

Numan, who is in his 60s and a father of six, was said to have been beaten by the bandits as they dragged him to the bush.

Narrating their ordeal, after his release, Emmanuel said the bandits later called at about 2:00 p.m. to demand for N20 million ransom.

According to him, “About 20 men, all of them armed came to the village and started shooting. They came to our house and started hitting and banging at our doors but nobody opened. They then forced their way into house and vandalised everything. They carted away some valuables including mobile phones and clothing in my mother’s box.

“They later picked me together with my father. But after we moved a while to the bush, I was released and they went away with my father. One of them was dressed in military camouflage. As they released me, they threatened that if we didn’t bring money in five days even though they didn’t mentioned the specific ransom, they will kill him.

“They later called us and asked us to raise N20 million so that they could release him. We don’t have that kind of money. But we are still negotiating with them. We are yet to report to the police, because even when we had similar experience in the past and contacted them, they did not do anything about it.”

Last week, the Kaduna State chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. Joseph Hayab, while lamenting the increasing rate of kidnappings in the state, said the church had spent over N300 million on payment of ransom to kidnappers in the last four years.

Hayab, while reacting to the latest incident, said Nigerians are becoming helpless with the security situation. “We are very helpless, the authorities must be up and doing to address this problem. We have been crying a lot over the security challenges. Let the government live up to its responsibility of protecting lives and properties of citizens,” he said.

Spokesman of the Kaduna State Police Command, Yakubu Sabo, did not respond to telephone calls and a text message when contacted.