James Ngyang, a member of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) has revealed how armed men killed a guard and abducted the pastor in Plateau state last Sunday.
Pastor Bung Fon Dong was kidnapped in his residence within the Church area in Ganawuri, Riyom County, Plateau state.
“Armed gunmen we believe are Fulani terrorists attacked Ganawuri and abducted the Rev. Bung Fon Dong alongside James Mann, who later escaped from the hands of the kidnappers,” Gang told US Morning Star News in a text message.
“The gunmen stormed the RCC [Regional Church Council] chairman’s residence, at about 10 p.m., shot and wounded the pastor’s wife, and killed one James Ngyang, a member of the church and security church worker, before they forcefully took away the pastor at gunpoint.”
On Monday, the gunmen contacted the pastor’s family and demanded 20 million naira for his release, Gang said, adding that Ngyang’s body was buried on that day.
Police confirmed the kidnapping of Pastor Dong. Alfred Alabo, deputy superintendent of police of the Plateau State Police Command, said in a press statement that the attack happened Sunday night, and that Mann is the principal of the Government Secondary School in Ganawuri.
“We have deployed operatives to track down the criminals and rescue the hostage,” Alabo said.
In Ruku village, Gashish District in Plateau state’s Barkin Ladi County, a band of gunmen on Sept. 7 attacked the predominantly Christian community, shooting and wounding three Christian women who were working at a tin mining site, said Dalyop Solomon Mwantiri, director of the Emancipation Centre for Crisis Victims in Nigeria.
Saying the three women were receiving treatment at Barkin Ladi General Hospital after being shot at about 10:45 p.m. by “armed men suspected to be Fulani militias,” Mwantiri identified the victims as Rose Bitrus, 41; Polina Mathew, 43; and Grace Pam, 42.
Pastor’s son kidnapped
In the Abaji area of Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory, gunmen on Sept. 4 kidnapped dozens of people, including the son of Evangelical Church Winning All Pastor Bala Akpeni, in an attack on predominantly Christian Kutaru village, according to the ECWA’s Evangelical Missionary Society (EMS).
“On the night of Sunday, Sept. 4, many Christians were kidnapped from one of our mission fields,” EMS Coordinator James Saleh said in a request for prayer. “Among those kidnapped is Steven Bala, the son of Pastor Bala Akpeni, the missionary taking care of the prayer house there. Please pray for God’s intervention.”
An ECWA pastor and two members of his church taken into captivity by terrorists for two months have been released and are now recovering from the trauma, Saleh said.
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