{"id":96205,"date":"2025-11-24T12:36:37","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T12:36:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=96205"},"modified":"2025-11-24T12:41:48","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T12:41:48","slug":"how-the-38-eruku-church-worshippers-were-freed-but-what-happened-to-the-bandits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=96205","title":{"rendered":"(+Video) How the 38 Eruku Church worshippers were freed: But what happened to the bandits?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 17px;\"><b>It is no longer news that <\/b><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 17px;\">38 members of the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) in Eruku, Kwara State \u2014 abducted during a violent bandit attack last week \u2014 have regained their freedom. Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State announced their release on Sunday. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 17px;\">What many want to know is how it happened and what befell the captors. Was ransom paid to them or were they neutralised?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 22px;\"><b>The Attack and Ransom Demand<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 17px;\">On Tuesday evening, gunmen stormed the CAC Oke-Isegun church in Eruku, opening fire during a service. Three people were killed in the attack, and dozens more were taken. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 17px;\">Initially, the kidnappers demanded a ransom of <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 17px;\"><b>\u20a6100 million per person<\/b><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 17px;\">. However, by Friday, they reportedly reduced their demand to <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 17px;\"><b>\u20a620 million each<\/b><\/span><span style=\"font-size: 17px;\">, before communication broke down. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 22px;\"><b>Rescue Operation<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 640px;\" class=\"wp-video\"><video class=\"wp-video-shortcode\" id=\"video-96205-1\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" preload=\"metadata\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"video\/mp4\" src=\"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/VID-20251124-WA0017.mp4?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/VID-20251124-WA0017.mp4\">https:\/\/everyday.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/VID-20251124-WA0017.mp4<\/a><\/video><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 17px;\">While the precise operational details remain sketchy, the freed victims were received on Sunday at the Kwara Government House, escorted by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS).<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_96206\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-96206\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-96206\" src=\"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot_20251124_130205_WhatsApp-300x237.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"237\" srcset=\"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot_20251124_130205_WhatsApp-300x237.jpg 300w, https:\/\/everyday.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot_20251124_130205_WhatsApp-696x550.jpg 696w, https:\/\/everyday.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot_20251124_130205_WhatsApp.jpg 731w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-96206\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Freed abductees in the Kwara State Government House, Ilorin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 17px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-96207\" src=\"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot_20251124_130223_WhatsApp-300x204.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"204\" srcset=\"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot_20251124_130223_WhatsApp-300x204.jpg 300w, https:\/\/everyday.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot_20251124_130223_WhatsApp-768x522.jpg 768w, https:\/\/everyday.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot_20251124_130223_WhatsApp-696x473.jpg 696w, https:\/\/everyday.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot_20251124_130223_WhatsApp.jpg 820w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-96208\" src=\"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot_20251124_130215_WhatsApp-300x242.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"242\" srcset=\"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot_20251124_130215_WhatsApp-300x242.jpg 300w, https:\/\/everyday.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot_20251124_130215_WhatsApp-696x562.jpg 696w, https:\/\/everyday.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot_20251124_130215_WhatsApp.jpg 725w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-96209\" src=\"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot_20251124_130047_WhatsApp-288x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"288\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot_20251124_130047_WhatsApp-288x300.jpg 288w, https:\/\/everyday.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Screenshot_20251124_130047_WhatsApp.jpg 611w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 288px) 100vw, 288px\" \/>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 17px;\">Governor AbdulRazaq credited the success to coordinated efforts by security agencies, including the DSS, the Nigerian Army, the Nigerian Intelligence Agency, and the Nigeria Police \u2014 all mobilized under directives from the presidency. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 17px;\">Although the governor\u2019s office expressed deep gratitude to President Bola Tinubu for his \u201cdirect initiative,\u201d it did not provide specific confirmation of a special raid, aerial operation, or decisive firefight. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 22px;\"><b>Aftermath and Care for Survivors<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 17px;\">Upon their release, the 38 freed worshippers were taken to the Government House clinic for medical evaluation. Many appeared exhausted and traumatized after their ordeal. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 17px;\">Governor AbdulRazaq emphasised that while the rescue is a relief, the state \u201cwill not fully celebrate\u201d security until other ongoing abductions \u2014 such as the case of the abducted schoolgirls in Kebbi State \u2014 are resolved. <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 17px;\">This rescue matters for a range of reasons:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 17px;\">\u2022 The attack came amid growing international scrutiny of kidnappings and religious violence in Nigeria. <\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 17px;\">\u2022 The security operation reflects increased pressure on the government to respond more decisively to mass abductions.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: 17px;\">\u2022 For the Eruku community, the return of the 38 captives \u2014 including women, children, and elderly worshippers \u2014 represents a major relief, though the trauma of the attack will likely linger.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 17px;\">Meanwhile, security sources disclosed that the briefing of heads of security agencies led to the successful rescue of all the 38 kidnapped church worshippers of Eruku, Ifelodun LGA, Kwara State by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) at about 3.20 pm on Sunday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 17px;\">Several AK-47 &#8211; wielding men had last Wednesday invaded the Christ Apostolic Church, Eruku, Kwara State, shooting at worshippers. At the end of the bloody attack which was inadvertently streamed live, two worshippers lay dead with several others wounded. The gunmen thereafter fled into the bushes with 38 other worshippers, triggering international outrage. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 17px;\">The sources added that the involvement of President triggered an unprecedented intelligence mapping and aerial surveillance by Office of the NSA, resulting in DSS operatives swopping on established coordinates in the forests of Oreke Okeigbo, in Ifelodun LGA of Kwara State. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 17px;\">According to the sources, the president\u00a0 approved the Sunday raid by the DSS and the Nigeria Air Force, culminating in the rescue of the victims. The sources said the operation was highly classified, so couldn&#8217;t tell if the kidnappers fled on sighting the security operatives, or were eliminated.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 17px;\">The sources drew attention to the fact that some gunmen had in June attacked a marble mining company in the same area, killing two policemen, and kidnapped some Chinese workers. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 17px;\">A breakdown of the 38 rescued kidnapped church worshippers showed that 26 of them are females while the remaining 12 are males. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 17px;\">The oldest victim is 67 years old, while the youngest worshipper is five. Four other rescued victims are six, nine years old respectively. Two of them are 10 years old; three are in their pre-teens, four are teenagers, while the rest are between 20 and 58 years old, disclosed the source.<\/span><!--\/data\/user\/0\/com.samsung.android.app.notes\/files\/clipdata\/clipdata_bodytext_251124_125527_182.sdocx--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It is no longer news that 38 members of the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) in Eruku, Kwara State \u2014 abducted during a violent bandit attack last week \u2014 have regained their freedom. Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara State announced their release on Sunday. What many want to know is how it happened and what befell [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":96209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2809,1024,169,7519,264,3944,56,6263],"class_list":["post-96205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-2809","tag-bandits","tag-dss","tag-eruku","tag-freed","tag-ilorin","tag-tinubu","tag-where"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=96205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/96209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}