The Kaduna State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has lamented that the body has parted with over N300m as ransom for about 500 of its members kidnapped in the last two years.
This was contained in a statement by the State Chairman of CAN, Rev. Joseph Hayab, who spoke in Kaduna on Thursday.
According to him, the activities of the criminals had forced inhabitants of 10 villages to flee from their homes to other parts in the state.
“We have been computing the numbers of Christian population kidnapped in Kaduna State in the last two years, over 500 of them that we know — either in the villages or in town — have been kidnapped.
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“The people have moved out of some settlements completely and we have closed down our churches because of the activities of the kidnappers”.
“We are still computing, but at the last count, the church has coughed out over N300m as ransom to kidnappers. In the case of the chief of Kajuru that was killed, it was N8m that the kidnappers took.
“There was a Reverend Father in Kachia, they took about N1.5m. They still killed him. In Dankande, Birnin-Gwari, they collected over N7m before they released those people to us.
It’s still the same war against Christians, this time around it’s coupled with extraction of money as well. The ‘criminals’ want to drive the people off the land and they are winning the fight. It isn’t just kidnapping but a disguised war against the indigenes. And the government seems to be tacitly backing the “kidnappers” up by abrogating “indigene” from their dictionary.