Kaduna: Bandits Release More Nigerian Baptist Students As Attacks Continue

September 2, 2021498 views0

Kaduna: Bandits Release More Nigerian Baptist Students As Attacks Continue

2021-09-02T22:52:36+01:00

By Bede Ehiogu

Bandits who kidnapped over a hundred Nigerian Baptist school students in July have released an additional 47.This has left captive 31 of the more than 120 originally taken.According to the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), bandits released 32 Bethel Baptist High School students to their parents on Friday last week.The school administrator and pastor John Hayab told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kaduna, but the reason for the release was not stated.“The parents were advised to immediately take their wards to the hospital for medical checkups, as they were very sick and exhausted. The children looked so weak, sick and tired,” Hayab added.Earlier on Aug. 22, kidnappers returned 15 Bethel students to their parents who paid ransoms.Despite these negative developments, there are still attacks in some parts of the country. This has made religious leaders describe the country as under a “national emergency.”Among the latest attacks is the one that armed Fulani herdsmen killed an estimated 36 people Aug. 24 in an attack near the University of Jos in Plateau, south of Kaduna,.“Indigenous ethnoreligious minorities are being targeted in a relentless campaign of violence which involves decimation, displacement, and demographic alteration,” CSW spokesperson Kiri Kankhwende said.He added that this accelerates during farming or harvesting seasons, indicating a deliberate effort to engineer starvation and complete economic disempowerment.In early August, Stephen Baba Panya, president of Evangelical Church Winning All, decried the killing of at least 70 people over the previous two weeks in farming communities in Plateau state and southern Kaduna.READ ALSO: Miango Attack: People’s Confidence In The Military, Others Fast Eroding – ECWA President