Now, more than at the beginning, it seems that kidnappings up here north is assuming an economic jihad status; when the Chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Kaduna State, Rev. Felix Hyat, cried out that over 500 Christians have been abducted at Kaduna State over the last two years with the attendant sum of N300 million paid as ransom so far, he didn’t intend for this kidnapping activities to continue, but kidnappings have not abated since his plea for help.
When Bishop David Oyedepo damned the kidnappers of Kaduna State and their sponsors after a pastor of the Living Faith Church at Romi New Extension was brutally murdered and his wife snatched for ransom he didn’t mean that more pastors should be kidnapped by these religious terrorists but this is exactly what is still going on.
Are we living in Old Testament times in this our country Nigeria? When men of God cried out that the righteous ones are being kidnapped and killed just to satisfy bloodthirsty lust for Ba’alhood, instead of quitting and showing remorse the brainwire of this racket keep mute and silently urge these terrorists on. One of the poignant pictures out of Kaduna State this past sallah holiday was that of a Pentecostal pastor and his wife distributing relief materials to Muslims in dire straits who practically live off the streets; that image was rightly syndicated in many national dailies and the image rightly spoke a thousand words.
Then, why was a pastor snatched just a couple of days ago and his abductors are demanding for N20 million ransom or the option to kill him after five days in captivity? Say, didn’t his abductors just celebrate sallah? If they are “not true Muslims,” the way the Northern Establishment so carelessly dismisses criminal-terrorists, then why haven’t the “real Muslim” chief security officer of Kaduna State and that of Nigeria openly condemn this criminality and show desire to ending this kidnapping menace? Unless, of course, kidnapping of pastors and reverend fathers is a sub-component of the full gamut of economic jihad.
––Sunday Adole Jonah, Department of Physics, Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State.
