Nigeria’s police have now confirmed that a group of worshippers was kidnapped from three churches in a remote part of the northern Kaduna state, after previously denying it.
More than two days after the raid on the Kurmin Wali village, police on Tuesday night said that an earlier statement denying the attack had been “widely misinterpreted”.
Local residents told the BBC that 177 worshippers had been abducted but that 11 later escaped.
Police spokesperson Benjamin Hundeyin did not give any numbers but said subsequent checks by operational units and intelligence sources had confirmed the abduction.
He said security forces had been fully deployed to the area, and that search-and-rescue operations and patrols were under way.
The police spokesperson added that the earlier statement was “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”.
One eyewitness said the attack happened at about 10:00 local time on Sunday.
“Some people tried to run, but they couldn’t because the armed men had surrounded the village,” he said. “They gathered people together and later forced them to march into the bush.”
Residents said the attack affected three churches – two which are part of the Cherubim and Seraphim Movement Church, and one from the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA).
In a joint statement with local government officials on Monday, Kaduna state police commissioner Alhaji Muhammad Rabiu described the reports of a kidnapping as “mere falsehood which is being peddled by conflict entrepreneurs who want to cause chaos”.
He challenged “anyone to list the names of the kidnapped victims and other particulars.”
The chairman of Kajuru local government area, which includes Kurmin Wali, Dauda Madaki, said security forces had been sent to the area but found no sign of a kidnapping.
In November, more than 300 students and teachers were seized from a Catholic school in neighbouring Niger state. They were later released in two successive groups. This was among a spate of kidnappings that made international headlines.
Nigeria is facing numerous security challenges – including kidnappings for ransom by criminal gangs, an Islamist insurgency in the north-east, separatist violence in the south-east, and a battle between herders and farmers in the centre over access to land and water.
Credit: bbc.com
