By: Manoah Kikekon
KADUNA, NIGERIA — The armed bandits holding 37 Christian worshippers abducted during an Easter Sunday raid in Kaduna State have drastically escalated their demands. Community representatives reveal that the terrorists are now demanding a staggering ₦1 billion ransom alongside 35 brand-specific motorcycles before they will grant freedom to the hostages, who have languished in captivity for well over a month.
The crisis began on April 5, when heavily armed gunmen launched coordinated, bloody assaults on St. Augustine Catholic Church, the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA), and local Baptist churches within the Ariko community, located in the Kachia Local Government Area. The initial onslaught shattered Easter celebrations, leaving five people dead and forcing dozens into the wilderness.
Local negotiators tracking the crisis disclosed that the kidnappers have broken their silence with aggressive specific demands. Beyond the massive financial requirement, the armed network is insisting on the delivery of two distinct motorcycle variations widely utilized by criminal groups to navigate the rugged, unpaved terrain of northwestern forests.
Specifically, the captors have ordered the community to supply: 20 "Boko Haram" brand motorcycles: High-powered, rugged bikes heavily favored by insurgent factions for long-endurance wilderness operations. 15 Bajaj motorcycles: Standard, highly durable commuter bikes frequently modified for swift transport through dense terrain.
“Yes, they are demanding 35 motorcycles, and those motorcycles are not the same type. They want 20 of one called Boko Haram, and 15 Bajaj motorcycles, in addition to ₦1 billion,” confirmed Danjuma Doka, a local community negotiator whose elderly, visually impaired father is among those trapped in the camp. “They told us we must pay these demands or forget about our people. Meanwhile, our people are passing through severe pain.”
The 37 remaining hostages comprising fragile elderly individuals, nursing mothers, young children, and pregnant women have now spent approximately 45 grueling days trapped in the infamous Rijana Forest, a dense kidnapping sanctuary running parallel to the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway.
Reports filtering out of the camp outline horrific living conditions, with victims exposed to torrential rains and harsh weather elements without basic clothing, food, or medical attention. The community recently learned that a 28-year-old female captive was forced to give birth inside the wilderness while her legs remained bound.
“We were called and told that one of the female adoptees gave birth in the hands of her captors, with her legs chained like a slave,” lamented Dr. Joseph David Ariko, President of the Kuturmi Development Association (KUDA). “The woman who gave birth has no clothes to cover the baby, nor water to clean herself and the child. They have been under the sun and in the rain all these weeks.”
For the agrarian community of Ariko, raising a billion naira is a structural impossibility. Local families rely almost entirely on small-scale crop cultivation, and past encounters with banditry have already drained the area's modest financial resources.
Consequently, leadership organizations and distraught families have explicitly rejected claims of an early mass rescue, clarifying that those who escaped initially were simply people who hid in the bushes during the chaos, not the core group of 37 captives who are still accounted for in the forest.
“How can a rural, farming community raise ₦1 billion? It is impossible,” Dr. Ariko stated during an emotional public appeal. “We have no means of gathering such a staggering amount. We are making an urgent, desperate appeal to the Federal Government and the Kaduna State Government under Governor Uba Sani to intervene immediately. We need a swift, tactical rescue operation to save the remaining hostages before it is too late.”