wo out of the 66 kidnapped worshippers of Emmanuel Baptist Church Kakau Daji in Kaduna State were shot dead by their abductors on Saturday.
President of the Nigerian Baptist Convention (NBC), Rev. Israel Adelani Akanji, disclosed this to newsmen during the annual thanksgiving/ church building dedication service of the First Baptist Church (Agape Community) Warri in Warri South council area of Delta State.
According to him, three others shot are on life support at a hospital in Kaduna.
The Nation recalls gunmen abducted 66 worshippers around 10:00am last Sunday from Emmanuel Baptist Church, Kakau Daji, Kakau in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
According to him, the shooting of the five on Saturday was an attestation to the fact that the bandits were carrying out their threats, urging the government to do the needful.
The cleric said the bandits had made their intention known which the Nigerian Baptist Convention cannot grant since it is not the government.
“Last Sunday again, 66 worshippers were kidnapped in our church in a community in Kaduna.
“The kidnappers told them that until the government brings them to a roundtable discussion, they’ll not release our people.
“They’re not demanding ransom, they’re saying the government must invite them to a roundtable discussion, else they’ll begin to kill our people if the government does not oblige.
“But we’re not the government. We don’t have power over the government to force them to a roundtable. And our people are in their hands.
“Very sadly yesterday, the seventh day of being in their custody, the kidnappers shot five of our people; two died instantly and others are lying critically in the hospital.
“We don’t know if they’ll ever survive. So, they’ve started carrying out their threats.
The cleric, who preached on the topic: ‘The house of Mary Church’, lamented the July 2021 abduction of 121 students of Bethel Baptist High School, Damishi, Chikun LGA of Kaduna for which millions were paid as ransom to effect the release of 117 of them.
He further called on the church to return to effectual prayers, sacrificial love, unity of purpose, power of deliverance and joyful surprises that characterised the early church, which enabled the timely release of Apostle Peter from the stranglehold of King Herod.
