Kaduna State’s police leadership has shifted from outright denial to on-the-ground engagement after the Commissioner of Police visited Kajuru Local Government Area and heard firsthand accounts from survivors of the January 18 church attacks, days after authorities insisted no abduction had occurred.
The visit followed growing public pressure and detailed eyewitness accounts from Christian leaders and local officials who say armed men stormed multiple churches during Sunday worship, abducting scores of congregants in an incident now widely referred to as #Kajuru177.
One survivor, identified during the visit wearing a yellow jersey, recounted how the attackers arrived while worship was underway.
“We were in the church when we heard noise from outside,” the survivor said. “I stepped out and saw four armed men. I picked my little daughter and wanted to run, but one of them said if I run he will shoot me, so I stopped.”
According to the survivor, the gunmen forced worshippers out of their churches and regrouped them before marching them into the surrounding forests.
“They removed the other people from the church. When we got to another church, we noticed they had also removed all the members. Together, they asked all of us to go with them,” he said.
The group was beaten during the journey and pushed deeper into the bush, the survivor added.
“When we got to another village in the bush, we saw many people there—some not from our community. That was where I escaped because of the crowd,” he said. “I ran through the bush until I got back home.”
The testimony contrasts sharply with earlier statements by Kaduna State Police Commissioner Alhaji Muhammad Rabiu, who earlier this week dismissed reports that more than 100 Christian worshippers were abducted during church services in Kajuru, describing the claims as false and politically motivated.
Addressing journalists after a meeting of the State Security Council, Rabiu accused unnamed “conflict entrepreneurs” of spreading misinformation aimed at destabilising Kaduna State.
“Let anyone who claims this kidnapping occurred come forward with names and particulars of the victims,” he said at the time.
Christian leaders and local officials maintain that at least three churches were attacked simultaneously on January 18, with worshippers forced into the bush by armed assailants—an incident they describe as one of the largest single-day church abductions in northern Nigeria in recent years.
The evolving official response has added momentum to wider concerns about Nigeria’s deteriorating security landscape, particularly in the Middle Belt, where repeated attacks on rural communities, churches and commuters have continued despite heavy security deployments.
