The Christian Association of Nigeria has said that th church has paid up to N30 to kidnappers in Kaduna State alone in the past two years.
The body also said that 500 Christians had been kidnapped during the period.
According to the state Chairman of CAN, Rev. Joseph Hayab, the activities of bandits, armed robbers and other criminal elements in the state who had turned to kidnappings, saying in one village alone, the church paid N20m.
He said inhabitants of 10 villages had been forced to leave their homes in the process.
Hayab said in Kaduna, “We have been computing the numbers of Christian population kidnapped in Kaduna State in the last two years, over 500 of them that we know — either in the villages or in town — have been kidnapped.
“The people have moved out of some settlements completely and we have closed down our churches because of the activities of the kidnappers.
“We are still computing, but at the last count, the church has coughed out over N300m as ransom to kidnappers. In the case of the chief of Kajuru that was killed, it was N8m that the kidnappers took.
“There was a Reverend Father in Kachia, they took about N1.5m. They still killed him. In Dankande, Birnin-Gwari, they collected over N7m before they released those people to us.”
