Eighty of the 177 worshippers abducted from three churches in Kurmin Wali, Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna State have escaped from their captors and reunited with their families.
Eleven had escaped shortly after they were taken away on January 18. Kurmin Wali Village Head Ishaku Dan’azumi, made this known yesterday.
Also yesterday, the Niger State Police Command confirmed that its station in Agwara was attacked with a dynamite by bandits. A church was also torched.
The Nation also gathered that a nursing mother and her four children were abducted by the same bandits in the same community, while an elderly man was killed by the same bandits in Sokonbara, a nearby village in Kabe.
Kurmin Wali Village Head said the latest escapees(80) first took refuge in neighbouring communities before returning home. He added that the remaining 86 other worshippers are still being held in the forest by the bandits.
Dan’azumi, however, said it was unfortunate that even as the victims’ families are going through serious trauma, some people are trying to politicise our situation.’’
There were conflicting accounts of the attack on the churches.
While the Kaduna State Police Command and the Kajuru Local Government Council initially dismissed reports of the mass abduction, community leaders and church officials insisted that scores of worshippers were taken away during services.
The controversy deepened when a list of 177 alleged abductees, said to have been compiled by families and church leaders, surfaced following a public challenge by the Police Commissioner for concrete details.
Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in the 19 Northern States and the Federal Capital Territory( FCT), Rev. John Hayab, had earlier said that over 160 worshippers were abducted.
Residents maintained that the gunmen stormed the churches-Catholic, ECWA and Cherubim and Seraphim- shut the gates and marched congregants into the bush.
Mother, four children abducted.
Niger State Police Command Public Relations Officer, Abiodun, said the bandits first attacked the police station before moving to the UMC Church in Agwara.
He said: “On 1/2/26 at about 3.40 am, armed bandits invaded Agwara community, attacked the Police station where they were engaged by the tactical team on the ground, used suspected dynamite to set the station ablaze, having overpowered the team.
“ The bandits later moved to UMC Church in the community, burnt part of the church, proceeded to other areas and abducted about five persons whose identity is yet to be ascertained. Monitoring continues; further development will be communicated.”
Sources told The Nation that the nursing mother and her children are members of Mallam Ahmed Burade. Barade, a former Niger State Union of Teachers (NUT) chairman and current headmaster of a primary school in Agwara, was said to have also been abducted, but he escaped during a clash between the bandits and local vigilantes.
The bandits, according to one of the sources, headed for Sokonbara near Kabe, where they killed the elderly man before looting food supplies and valuables.
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