Thirteen people are now known to have been abducted by armed assailants from the First Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) in Aiyetoro Kiri, Kabba-Bunu Local Government Area (LGA) in the Kogi West Senatorial District on 14 December.
The attackers reportedly opened fire as they entered the community, before disrupting the Sunday service with gunshots and abducting the worshippers.
According to the Kogi State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Kingsley Fanwo, five of the assailants were killed in a firefight with local hunters ‘who serve as the first line of defence’. He added that a joint task force consisting of members of the army’s 12 Brigade, the Department of State Services (DSS), the police, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps NSCDC), and local hunters are currently searching for the abductees in the Ejiba forest, and that security was being tightened around ‘soft targets like churches.’
Locals also informed Nigerian media that armed assailants had targeted a school in Aiyetoro Kiri around three weeks earlier, but were repelled by local vigilantes.
The attack on First ECWA Church is the second armed assault on a church in Kogi State in two weeks. On 30 November militia had invaded the Sunday service of the Cherubim and Seraphim Church in Ejiba town in Yagba West LGA, abducting the church leader, his wife, a visiting preacher and several church members. The attackers demanded an initial ransom of N500 million (approximately GBP 258,000), which was later reduced to N200 million (GBP 103,000), and have reportedly issued an ultimatum to the abductees’ families.
Nigerian media also report an unconfirmed number of people were abducted during an attack in the evening of 15 December on the Jege community in Yagba East LGA, and of a further attack on commuters travelling on the Egbe–Ogbe road in Yagba West LGA in which two people were abducted and one was shot and injured while attempting to escape.
The Kogi West Senatorial District has reportedly experienced attacks on 34 communities within an eight-month period, including in the Kabba-Bunu, Lokoja, Yagba East and Yagba West LGAs, and shares a border with Kwara State, which has witnessed a marked increase in violence by the Mahmuda terrorist faction, among others.
Security operatives in Yagba West LGA recently discovered a previously unknown Fulani settlement deep inside the Ejiba forest, and approximately a four-hour walk from Ejiba town which had been named ‘Nasarawa.’ The discovery echoed the testimony of Ojaja Joseph, a student from Benue who was abducted along with 17 bus passengers travelling to Kogi in late November, but who managed to escape. He recounted being forced to march for three hours through a forest by heavily armed assailants, crossing several rivers, and encountering settlements where wives and children of his captors came out to congratulate them on their successful mission.
The House of Representatives has called on the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to deploy adequate security personnel to identified hotspots along the expressway between the federal capital, Abuja, and the Kogi State capital, Lokoja, and on other targeted routes over the Christmas period.
Unprecedented levels of insecurity continue to impact every region in the country.
On 15 December a community in Ora-Igbomina in Ifedayo LGA in Osun State, located close to the borders of Kwara and Ekiti States, suffered a large armed attack in which one man was killed and Emmanuel Owolabi, a former customs officer, was abducted from his home. Eyewitnesses report that the heavily armed assailants invaded the town in large numbers, operating for several hours. Local security guards and community vigilantes attempted to repel the attackers, but were reportedly outgunned.
Following the attack High Chief Isaac Fadipe, the Inurin of Ora Igbomina, said: ‘We are now living in perpetual fear, and we want the government to act fast on the security of the people.’
Meanwhile, attacks by Fulani militia continue in other central states. On 12 December Agunu Dutse community in Kachia LGA was attacked by over 100 heavily-armed assailants who engaged local vigilantes armed with Dane guns in a three-hour shootout in which Manaon Joseph, a 19 year old student, died and four adults were abducted. Locals reported receiving no assistance from a military base less than 400 metres away from the area. Earlier, on 9 December militiamen killed two people during an attack on Tudun Wadan Ridi village in Chikun LGA. There are also credible reports of planned largescale militia attacks on the Barkin Ladi, Bokkos and Riyom LGAs of Plateau State over the Christmas period.
In addition, the remaining 153 students and 12 staff members who were abducted in an armed raid on St Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary School in the Papiri community of Agwara LGA in Niger State on 21 November are still in captivity.
CSW’s CEO Scot Bower said: ‘It is unfortunate that even as the government of Nigeria demonstrates that it has the resources and ability to assist in ending a coup in neighbouring Benin, it struggles to provide similarly swift intervention and protection to its citizens. While CSW welcomes and echoes the call of the National Assembly for the deployment of security to vulnerable roads, we urge the Nigerian authorities to go further still by ensuring the safety of churches in areas experiencing increased attacks as Christmas approaches. Government at both the state and federal level must work together to ensure Christians and their communities are protected, particularly in longstanding hotspots such as Benue, Plateau, Taraba and southern Kaduna, and in emerging ones, such as Kogi and Kwara States.’