Insecurity in Nigeria’s Kaduna State Growing “beyond our imagination”: Christian Leaders

Last month, the Commissioner of Internal Security and Home Affairs in Kaduna State said 343 persons had lost their lives to banditry and other violent attacks, while 830 people had been abducted between July and September 2021.

Samuel Aruwan also announced that 210 citizens were injured across the Nigerian State, 10 victims had been raped, while 101 persons had been rescued by troops during patrols and operations.

In the three-month operations, 69 bandits were killed by security agencies in the three months, the State Commissioner reported.

In the November 7 report, Pastor Hayab appeals to well-meaning individuals, organizations and the Federal Government of Nigeria to come to the rescue of the people of God in Kaduna. 

He also calls on Christians and all dwellers of Kaduna State “to be united in fighting this evil and be watchful.”    

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Referencing the October 31 attack on the Baptist church in Chikun Local Government Area in the State, Pastor Hayab says that two of the 66 worshippers who were kidnapped lost their lives on November 6.

The two lives were lost after the bandits opened fire on the abductees. Five others were injured in the incident.

Last week, the Nigerian Pastor had said that the attack on the church portrays the worsening insecurity in the West African nation.

The attack, he said, is “another sad story of how deteriorating our insecurity has become.”

“Citizens are being killed like chickens with only press statements as consolation,” the official of CAN, which includes the leadership of the Catholic Church in Nigeria, was quoted as saying in  the November 2 report published by the Barnabas Fund.

In August, Catholic Bishops of Nigeria’s Kaduna Ecclesiastical Province  expressed concern about the insecurity organized by religious extremists in the country and called on Nigerians to stand together and reclaim “nobility of faith.”

“Today, our country, entrusted to us by God, has been consumed by forces of darkness and death. We all know that sadly, the perpetrators of these evils are constantly appealing to the religion of Islam to validate their criminality,” the Catholic Bishops said (date). 

“This madness has cast a dark spell on the nobility of faith,” the Catholic Church leaders said, and lamented, “more and more citizens are losing faith in God because of the way religion has been abused in our country.”

Magdalene Kahiu is a Kenyan journalist with passion in Church communication. She holds a Degree in Social Communications from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa (CUEA). Currently, she works as a journalist for ACI Africa.