2 abducted Baptist worshipers shot dead, 3 hospitalised

Two of the 66 abducted worshippers of Emmanuel Baptist Church, Kakau Daji, Kaduna State, were shot dead on Saturday by their abductors, it was said yesterday.

“Yesterday (Saturday), the seventh day of being in their custody, the kidnappers shot five of our people; two died instantly, three now lying critically in the hospital,” President of the Nigerian Baptist Convention (NBC) Rev. Israel Adelani Akanji told journalists during the Annual Thanksgiving/Church Building Dedication Service of the First Baptist Church, Warri, Delta State.

Sixty-six worshippers were abducted from the church on October 31.

One person was killed and another injured during the attack.\

Rev. Akanji said the bandits threatened to start killing the abductees if the government did not call them to a roundtable.

He said the shooting of the five on Saturday was proof that the bandits were carrying out their threat, adding that he was yet to see President Muhammadu Buhari because the president was still out of the country.

“The kidnappers told our members who were abducted that until the government brings them to a roundtable discussion, they’ll not release them. They’re not demanding ransom, they’re saying government must invite them to a roundtable discussion else they’ll begin to kill our people.

“But we’re not government. We don’t have power over government to force them to a roundtable. And our people are in their hands,” he said.