A rescued worshipper of Christ Apostolic Church, Eruku, has described a terrifying November 18 abduction — saying attackers “surrounded the whole church” and took captives into a forest stronghold that they “dominated,” after President Tinubu announced all 38 worshippers had been rescued.
A member of Christ Apostolic Church (CAC), Eruku, who was among 38 worshippers abducted during an evening service on November 18, has recounted the assault and his time in captivity after President Bola Tinubu announced the rescue.
The survivor told TVC the attack began shortly after the programme started and that gunshots rang out: “It was a sudden act, a terrifying act. Because that evening, after 30 minutes of the programme, we just heard gunshots.” He added that at first he mistook the noise for “sparking of some wire,” but the assailants soon “surrounded the whole church,” leaving “drops of blood everywhere.”
The captives were taken into a forested zone the attacker(s) claimed as their stronghold: “It was unimaginable because when we got there, we didn’t know that it was a dominated area,” he said, adding that the abductors openly identified as bandits and boasted, “They made us know that there is no one who can slip away without being caught. And with what we saw, nobody can escape.”
The survivor warned that the group knew all routes linking bushes across Kwara and neighbouring states — “From that place, they have dominated. They knew all the routes surrounding all those bushes within Kwara and other cities. They knew it,” — and the report notes a worrying rise in abductions in Kwara and other northern states; meanwhile, the church resumed service last Sunday.