Lasun Alagbe
Fiery cleric, Bishop Matthew Kukah, is not holding back on his experience paying ransoms to kidnappers on his seized loved ones.
Although he did not directly fall victim to the menace, he said he had paid up to N30m to secure the release of some of his priests.
Besides, two of his family members are currently in the captivity of kidnappers who are demanding N30m.
The Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto noted this at a one-day programme tagged: “High-level forum on political communication and issue-based campaign in the 2023 general elections, organised by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies.
Kukah said, “I am the Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, I have spent about N30m the money I don’t have because my priests were kidnapped and I have nowhere to turn to.
“I am not ashamed to say it because these are essential realities. Anyone who wants to become president of Nigeria cannot pretend to stand before me without giving me empirical evidence from his or her record about how they intend to deal with these issues because there is a collective feeling of alienation.
“Here in Abuja, just about a month or so, when the threats came that the bandits will enter into Abuja, everybody went undercover.
“Before coming here, I was speaking with my brother, because two days ago, my nephew, his mother, and the driver were on their way to Abuja when they ran into the hands of kidnappers. My brother’s wife had an amputation some three months ago and they were bringing her to Abuja, so when the kidnappers saw the stomp on her leg, they had mercy on her and let her go.
“Right now, as we speak, my nephew and the driver of the vehicle are currently in the hands of the kidnappers, how it is going to end? I don’t know. Then they said they wanted N50m, they then said they wanted N20m, now they are staying on N30m.”
