Seth Udinski, FISM News

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FISM News has reported multiple instances of severe persecution against Christians in Nigeria, ranging from kidnappings to killings. Late last week, a pastor in the Kaduna region of the country was killed by his kidnappers after a month in captivity.

Rev. Dauda Bature of the First Evangelical Church Winning All in Nigeria was abducted on November 8, and sources say he was murdered last Thursday by the Fulani radical group that had taken him hostage. Further sources have indicated that the gang was demanding a ransom payment and that the ransom had been payed, yet the gang still murdered the pastor in the end.

The Fulani gang had apparently taken Pastor Bature’s wife captive and demanded she hand over the ransom money if she wanted her husband to live. An anonymous sources said,

When some money was raised, they asked the wife to bring the money which she took to them on November 18. They collected the money and kidnapped her. They kept her until December 6th and released her to go and look for more money.

The latest update is that Pastor Bature’s wife is safe.

According to International Christian Concern (ICC), many in the world seem to be ignoring the plight of Christians in the region, who are constantly targeted by Muslim radicals and other violent groups. Rev. Joseph John Hayab of the Christian Association of Nigeria described the frustration felt by many Christians in the region when the United States Department of Defense declared Nigeria is not a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), a list which highlights nations with significant human rights abuses, including religious persecution, in countries worldwide. Pastor Hayab spoke about a meeting he had with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, saying

What I said to Blinken was that, because Nigeria still has grave problems with religious persecution, his action was like that of a doctor discharging a patient from the hospital, even though the patient is critically ill. What that signifies is telling the patient to go home and die.