See Why Federal Government should start paying kidnapping ransoms – ECWA Church

Sequel to the recent kidnap of Rev. Jen Tivkaa Moses of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) and other members of the church, who have since been released after ransoms were paid, the Church has recommended that henceforth, the Federal Government should be
responsible for payment of ransoms of kidnapped citizens where it failed to protect them.

The church leaders could not say whether a ransom was paid to the kidnappers, who had demanded one million naira ($US2, 730), but church sources told DAILYPOST that a payment was made to secure his release.

However, Rev Dr. Jeremiah Gado, President of ECWA, and Rev Yunusa S. Madu, ECWA General Secretary, suggested that “bad egg” police were allowing Christians to be kidnapped.

According to the church leaders, in a statement, “Considering the short distance between the police checkpoint and the spot in which the pastor and other passengers were attacked by the kidnappers, one would have expected a swift response by the police to rescue them, but unfortunately they were helplessly abandoned in the hands of the kidnappers.

“This scenario, like many others as have been attested to by many residents along Abuja-Kaduna road, lends credence to the possible collaboration of some bad egg police and other security personnel in the increasing crime of kidnapping and armed robbery along that highway, or how do you explain the fact that for all the period our pastor was in the hands of the kidnappers, they neither changed position nor mobile number, and yet the security agents were not able to apprehend or track them,” the statement wondered.

The church leaders maintained that, not long ago, other ECWA pastors and members, including heavily pregnant women and children, have been kidnapped by alleged Fulani herdsmen along the Abuja-Kaduna road and subjected to various degrees of trauma before being released after payment of ransoms.

Meanwhile, Yohanna Maina, the driver to the aforementioned kidnapped cleric, was shot on his thigh when the assailants shot into the windshield, but their captors released him late that night on the highway.

The ECWA leaders said they will remain committed to praying for the government “and all those in authority, for wisdom to lead justly in accordance with God’s will.”