Nigerian police deny reports of mass church kidnappings in northern weekend

Police in northern Nigeria say reports of Sunday’s abduction of church worshipers in Kaduna state are false.

In a joint statement with local government officials on Monday, Kaduna State Police Commissioner Alhaji Muhammad Rabiu described the information as “pure lies spread by conflict entrepreneurs who want to create chaos.”

Earlier, a local official in Kurmin Valley told the BBC that gunmen abducted dozens of people attending different churches.

Nigeria has seen a series of mass kidnappings, with both Christians and Muslims targeted. Criminal gangs often carry out such attacks to obtain ransom.

But speaking of Sunday’s alleged kidnapping, the Kaduna police chief asked “anyone to list the names and other details of the kidnapped victims”.

Dauda Madaki, chairman of Kajuru Local Government Area, said security forces were dispatched to Kurmin Wali following reports of the attack, but “no evidence of an attack was found. I asked the village chief, Mai Dan Zaria, and he said no such attack had occurred.”

Police also cited the state’s Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs as saying religious leaders visited the area.

“They discovered that what was being pushed into the public domain was completely false,” he reportedly said.

However, Kurmin Wali community leader Ishaku Dan’azumi Sarkin earlier told the BBC that armed men attacked the area on Sunday and abducted 177 people from three churches.

He said 11 people escaped, several others were injured and no deaths were reported.

In November, more than 300 students and teachers from a Catholic school were arrested. They were later released in two consecutive batches. It was one of a series of kidnappings that made international headlines.

Nigeria faces numerous security challenges, including kidnapping for ransom by criminal gangs, an Islamist insurgency in the northeast, separatist violence in the southeast, and fighting between herders and farmers in the center over land and water.

Experts say corruption, poor intelligence sharing and underfunding of local policing have hampered efforts to address the various crises.

Nigeria’s defense minister resigned last month at the height of the kidnapping crisis, officially citing health reasons, according to the president’s office.

The United States has recently intervened militarily in Nigeria, launching airstrikes on Christmas Day on two camps run by an Islamist militant group in northwest Nigeria.

Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump warned that the US would launch more attacks if Christians continued to be killed in the West African country.

Nigeria has more than 250 ethnic groups and is roughly divided into a predominantly Muslim north, a predominantly Christian south and a mixed bag in between, and the government says people of all faiths have been victims of attacks.

A spokesman for Nigeria’s foreign ministry responded to Trump’s warning by saying that Nigeria would continue to engage constructively with partners such as the United States.

“Nigeria remains committed to protecting all citizens, whether Christian or Muslim, from discrimination,” said Alqasim Abdulkader.