Nigerian Christian Captives Starved and Tortured by Fulani Terrorists
By Luka Binniyat and Mike Odeh James | TRUTH NIGERIA | February 26, 2025
Exclusive to TruthNigeria (Kaduna, Nigeria) – After three harrowing months in captivity, eight abductees emerged on Monday following payment of a ₦40 million ($27,000 USD) ransom to Fulani Ethnic Militia operating a hidden torture camp in Kachia County. The county is home to Table Hill Army Training Area and the Nigerian Army School of Artillery, among other military sites.
The heavily armed kidnappers had seized them Dec 2, 2024 from their homes in Kauru County, Kaduna State, Northwest Nigeria. The 26 Pentecostal Christians were marched more than 30 miles over a four-day period until they came to be chained in a compound deep in the forest near the village of Rijana, approximately 28 miles south of Kaduna City.
The Rijana Village, a neighborhood on the Kaduna-Abuja expressway, has been an infamous kidnapping haven for more than eight years. It was in the news on Feb. 18 when the Nigerian National Security advisor, Nuhu Ribadu, presented 59 hostages to the Kaduna governor that the army had collected from Rijana.
“The hostages who had been abducted along the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway, particularly at Rijana community, had been rescued by a joint team of military and intelligence forces,” according to a post on the homepage of the National Counter-Terrorism Centre.
Yet, TruthNigeria can exclusively report that as many as 200 tortured hostages remain in a forested compound near Rijana and are in danger of execution any day. The 8 released captives interviewed on Feb 23 by TruthNigeria reporters had been whipped and starved by Fulfulde-speaking kidnappers for close to 90 days before their N40 million ransom had been paid.
Among those kidnapped was Joel Nuhu, a 27-year-old Christian cleric and graduate of the Christian Missionary Society Theological College in Saminaka, in Lere County on the border between Kaduna and Plateau States approximately 36 miles east of Kaduna city. He had been eagerly awaiting his posting to begin missionary work when Fulani terrorists launched a brutal attack on his village in Kauru, abducting him and 31 others, including his family members.