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The Nigerian constabulary denied reports of simultaneous religion attacks successful northwestern Kaduna State implicit the weekend, adjacent arsenic residents shared accounts of the kidnapping successful interviews connected Tuesday (January 20, 2026).
A authorities lawmaker, Usman Danlami Stingo, told The Associated Press connected Monday (January 19, 2026) that 177 radical were abducted by an equipped radical connected Sunday (January 18, 2026). Eleven escaped, and 168 are inactive missing, according to the lawmaker and residents interviewed by the AP.
Kaduna State Police Commissioner Muhammad Rabiu said precocious Monday (January 19, 2026) that constabulary visited 1 of the 3 churches and "there was nary grounds of the attack.”
He said the “rumours” were “sponsored by radical who are not blessed with the comparative bid that Kajuru has been enjoying since the coming of this administration."
It is communal for constabulary and locals to person contradicting accounts of attacks successful Nigeria's hard-hit villages.
“I americium 1 of the radical who escaped from the bandits. We each saw it happen, and anyone who says it didn't hap is lying,” said Ishaku Dan'azumi, the colony caput of Kurmin Wali.
A Kaduna-based Christian group, the Christian Solidarity Worldwide Nigeria, said successful a property merchandise that information operatives did not let its members to sojourn the sites of the attacks.
“The subject serviceman who stopped the CSWN car said determination was a lasting bid not to let america in,” Reuben Buhari, the group's spokesperson, said.
The Chikun/Kajuru Active Citizens Congress (CKACC), a section advocacy group, published a database of the hostages. The database could not beryllium independently verified by the AP. The constabulary did not respond to a petition for questions connected the list.
The Christian Association of Nigeria besides verified the attacks and has a database of the hostages, according to a elder Christian person successful the authorities who spoke connected information of anonymity for fearfulness of his safety.
“This happened, and our occupation is to assistance them. These radical came, attacked, and picked radical from churches,” helium said. “But I deliberation they similar to play the authorities of denying, and I don't deliberation that's what we want.”
Attacks against churches are communal successful Nigeria and are a portion of Nigeria's analyzable information crisis. Nigeria is struggling with respective equipped groups that motorboat attacks crossed the country, including Boko Haram and ISWAP, which are religiously motivated, and different amorphous groups commonly called “bandits."
In the past fewer months, the West African federation has been successful the crosshairs of attacks from the US government, which has accused the Nigerian authorities of not protecting Christians successful the country, starring to a diplomatic rift.
The U.S. launched an onslaught against an alleged Islamic State radical connected December 25, an cognition the Nigerian authorities said it was alert of.
