Nigerian Catholic worshiper pray during morning mass April 12, 2005, in Kano, Nigeria. Kano is part of Nigeria s primarily Muslim north, but a devoted Catholic minority participates in frequent Masses in local cathedrals. | Chris Hondros/Getty Images
Eight members of the Redeemed Christian Church of God who were abducted by gunmen last month while traveling on a bus to a church program in the Kaduna state of northwest Nigeria have been freed.
“Today I got the exciting news that our brethren who were in captivity of kidnappers have all been released and taken to the hospital for check-up and tests,” RCCG General Overseer Pastor Enoch Adeboye announced on Twitter.
Families displaced by Boko Haram attacks in Adamawa and Borno states, Nigeria. Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the kidnap of 300 school boys in December 2020. Photo by EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid on Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Salihu Tanko Yakasai, who until recently was the social media aide to the governor of north western Nigeria s Kano State, was arrested on February 26 by the Department of State Services (DSS) for criticizing the country s deplorable security situation.
Yakasai’s father told the online newspaper CableNG that his son was arrested by the DSS on his way to the barber s, adding, “But I cannot confirm to you whether he is here in Kano or somewhere else.’
Women carrying placards attend a street protest campaigning for the rescue of abducted Chibok girls, in the Ikeja district of Lagos, Nigeria, April 14, 2016. | Reuters/Akintunde Akinleye
One of the more than 100 schoolgirls who remain missing since their abduction from the Nigerian town of Chibok by the Boko Haram terror group in 2014 has escaped her captors, and her family is rejoicing while awaiting her return after seven long years.
Halima Ali Maiyanga was 15 when she was kidnapped. She’s returning home as a 22-year-old woman.
“Halima was in tears. She told us she was with the military and needed some clothes because she had nothing,” her brother, Muhammad Maiyanga, who spoke to Halima on the phone, told The Wall Street Journal. “We never thought we’d see her again.”