Over 40 kidnapped by bandits in Southern Kaduna church, as they demanded 2M ransom

Over 40 kidnapped by bandits in Southern Kaduna church, as they demanded 2M ransom

According to the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU), there is still no breathing room for communities in Southern Kaduna as armed herdsmen, robbers, terrorists, and jihadists continue to pillage and destroy towns in the Southern region of the state.

The mass kidnappings that happened on September 12 and 13, 2022, at Kasuwan Magani in Kajuru LGA of Southern Kaduna, according to SOKAPU President Awemi Dio Maisamari, were the most recent.

The largest weekly market in Kaduna State is held in Kasuwan Magani, which is located on the Kaduna-Kafanchan Express road about 20 kilometers south of Kaduna’s capital.

He claimed that on the first day (12 September), six persons were taken hostage after a daring terrorist raid in the town’s Ungwan Fada neighborhood.

The following day (September 13), at around midnight, during a night vigil program in the Bayan Kasuwa areas of Kasuwan Magani town, the terrorists invaded the Cherubim and Seraphim Church without any precautions being taken to prevent a repeat. More than 60 people were successfully carted away from the church and nearby homes. He claimed that some of them were too young, too old, or had health issues for them to be able to remove all of them.

According to the Union,” while retreating with their captors to their camps, they attacked Janwuriya village, a few kilometers from Kasuwan Magani, and abducted two more persons. As of now, forty-three (45) persons have so far been confirmed.
But yesterday, 18th September 2022, they made contact with some persons in the town via phone calls and claimed that only 40 persons were held by them.”

“They demanded a ransom of N200 million, but negotiation is still ongoing.
We don’t know the identity or the fate of the 5 missing persons yet. In other communities in Kajuru and Chikun LGAs, the occupying terrorists cohabit with the locals where the locals are treated like captives. They are terrorized at will, making it difficult or impossible for them to till or harvest their farms. As a result, most early maturing crops are left to rot on the farm. This is a daily experience in most occupied communities in Southern Kaduna.”

SOKAPU said in the last few months Southern Kaduna has also seen an unusual influx of thousands of herds of cattle and herdsmen from neighbouring states. “They indulgence in deliberate farmland destruction often at night; stealing of ripe farm crops and intimidation of helpless victim farmers.”

“Hundreds of hectares of crops bearing farmlands valued in millions of Naira have been destroyed. Worse hit is Sankwab, Gora Gida, Warkan, Ashong Ashui, Abuyab, Zamandabo, and Shiliam communities, in Atyap Chiefdom, Zangon Kataf Local Government Area in Southern Kaduna”.

“Numerous, often clandestine agreements in many communities with suspected herdsmen and their fronts have yielded no positive result. The Sector S7 Commander of Operation Safe Haven held a meeting of herdsmen, host community leaders, and farmers on Wednesday, 14 September, 2022 at Kafanchan. At the meeting, desperate victims of the herdsmen’s devastation told the Sector Commander that they were tired of holding fruitless meetings only for the violence to increase. This makes the meetings appear to serve the purpose of window dressing only.”

“We know that our security agencies and personnel have the capacity to rout these enemies of the people and the state because their routes, locations, and sometimes, even collaborators within and without are well known. SOKAPU is also not unaware of the immense suffering and sacrifices being made by our security forces, for which we appreciate.”

“In view of the above, SOKAPU wishes to profound sympathy to indigenous communities and peaceful Fulani herdsmen affected by this cruelty. We are calling on all communities not to let down their guards at this critical moment. Let us arise and prevent last minutes of devastation of our dear people and our precious ancestral homeland. We will definitely survive this ill wind, and even thrive once more in the land of our birth allotted to us by the Almighty.”