From Gyang Bere, Jos
President, Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), Rev. Jeremiah Gado, said suspected Fulani kidnappers along the Abuja-Kaduna highway have kidnapped his pastors, members and pregnant women.
Gado, in a press statement yesterday in Jos, Plateau State, also lamented over the recent abduction of the church’s Christian Education Director, Rev. Jen Moses, who gained freedom on Tuesday after being held for five days by kidnappers.
Said he: “We are seriously worried about the growing spate of insecurity and criminality in Nigeria, which appears to have overwhelmed the government and its security agencies, as, nowhere, homes, marketplaces, work places, worship places and our highways are now safe.
“Like many other Nigerians, members of the ECWA are suffering the brunt of insecurity on our highways, which have been taken over by armed robbers and kidnappers, who kill, maim, torture, rape, steal and extort outrageous ransoms from their helpless, poor victims while security agents looks away.
“Within the last few days, ECWA pastors and members, including heavily pregnant women and children, have been kidnapped by very young Fulani men along Abuja-Kaduna road and subjected to various degrees of traumatic experience before being released after payment of ransoms.
“Very recently, one of our pastors, who had just regained his freedom, was held hostage for five days by some daredevil young Fulani kidnappers, who seized him along Jere-Bwari road, just 200 metres away from a major police checkpoint on the curve bridge on Friday, August 5, 2017, at about 7pm in the evening after shooting the driver of the vehicle in which he was travelling.”
He noted that the pastor was kidnapped close to a police checkpoint and effort was not made by the security personnel to rescue him, while calling on the Federal Government to consider the payment of ransom for kidnap victims, where it failed to protect the people.