Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Mathew Hassan Kukah have cried out saying that kidnappers who kidnapped a Catholic priest and reverend sister over three weeks ago are now are demanding ₦200 million from him for their release.
“As I speak, for the past three weeks, my priest, a young man and a sister are still in captivity even though the Nigerian state wishes to pretend that we are not negotiating with the kidnappers.
“For the past three weeks my priest, a young man and a sister are still in captivity even though the Nigerian state wishes to pretend that we are not negotiating with the kidnappers.
Read Also: Gunmen Invade Bishop Kukah’s Church, Kidnap Priests, Others
“We are negotiating with the kidnappers as I’m talking because I don’t know how else to get back my priest.
‘It is a very painful experience. My blood relations have been kidnapped. Last year, I lost a priest to kidnappers. I have lost a seminarian to kidnappers and somehow, we like to pretend we have a government.
‘Of course, we have the apparatus of government, we have the scaffolding, but this scaffolding is important because people can see access to and appropriate resources of the state.
‘As to what the state needs to do, they are still far away from that reality. It is a very painful and sad reality that as at the last conversation with the kidnappers, we have negotiated up to N20 million, which I do not have,’ he said.
Africa Daily News, New York had a few weeks ago reported that some yet-to-be-identified Gunmen had broken into one of the parishes presided by Bishop Kukah, and kidnapped two priests in the process.
Africa Daily News, New York gathered that the armed hoodlums kidnapped two priests and two others in the rectory of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, Gidan Maikambo, in the Kafur Local Government Area of Katsina State.
Kukah’s Sokoto Diocese covers Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto and Kebbi States.
