…Four still being held in chains
What began as Sunday worship has ended in mass graves for 17 Christian worshippers that were abducted during an attack on churches in Ariko, Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
The worshippers who were kidnapped on April 5, 2026, never made it back home as they paid the supreme price in the forest in the hands of their cruel abductors.
The deadly gunmen had stormed three churches in Ariko during service and shot five worshippers dead before taking 37 others, mostly women and children away.
Twelve of the kidnapped victims managed to escape at different times in the bush while eight returned home after five harrowing months, but unfortunately, 17 did not make it as they died in captivity, of hunger, trauma and abuse.
This was as it was gathered that four other who are still alive are being held in chains more than six months after their kidnapped in very inhuman and critical condition.
These were disclosed on Sunday by Rev. Dr. Yunusa Nmadu the CEO of Christian Solidarity Worldwide Nigeria (CSWN), at ECWA Goodnews Church, Kaduna, during the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church.
Rev Nmadu told worshippers that going to church has become a death trap in parts of Southern Kaduna.
In what appeared a similar horror on April 20, gunmen again invaded Awon village, also in Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna State and abducted 11 people.
One of the kidnapped victims escaped while six were brutally killed in captivity while four remain in chains till today.
Rev Nmadu also noted the January 18, 2026 nightmare at Kurmin Wali in Kajuru LGA, during which 177 worshippers were seized in one swoop during Sunday service across three churches and spent 18 days with their captors before they regained freedom.
In the words of Rev Nmadu; “Behind the numbers are real pains. Women and children separated from their families, starved, denied water and soap. Nursing mothers and even elderly women repeatedly violated. Some returning home pregnant from rape.
“This is not just insecurity. In some of these communities, 99 percent of victims are Christians,” he said;
Nmadu listed Kachia, Kajuru, Kauru and Kagarko as hotspots where fear has emptied churches and sacked ancestral homes.
The cleric recalled Leah Sharibu, who was abducted since February 2018, as a painful reminder that some chains have lasted for years.
He further said; “Behind every report and every statistic is a person: a widow, a child, a pastor, a family who has lost a home or a loved one. They are not numbers to us.
“We are one Church. One Family. If one bleeds, we all pray. Faith under fire still burns,” he stated.
