‘They boasted they were bandits; no one slips away’ – Survivor of Kwara church abduction recounts horror

A survivor of the November 18 attack on Christ Apostolic Church (CAC), Eruku, Kwara State, has narrated the harrowing conditions he and other abducted worshippers endured while in captivity.

He is among the 38 victims rescued by security operatives a development President Bola Tinubu confirmed on Sunday.

Speaking in an interview, the survivor said the attackers invaded the church shortly after the evening service began, firing shots around the premises before forcing worshippers into the surrounding bush.

“It was a sudden act, a terrifying act. Because that evening, after 30 minutes of the programme, we just heard gunshots,” he said.

“Even to my own perspective, I didn’t know it was gunshots. I thought it was just sparking of some wire.

“By the time we got up, they surrounded the whole church. Even some people there began to narrate that they were seeing drops of blood everywhere.”

He said the abductors marched the captives deep into a forested area under their control. According to him, the kidnappers openly boasted about being bandits and claimed total dominance of the terrain, insisting that “no one can slip away” from their territory.

“It was unimaginable because when we got there, we didn’t know that it was a dominated area.

“They even had the courage to tell themselves that they are bandits. They made us know that there is no one who can slip away without being caught. And with what we saw, nobody can escape,” he said.

“From that place, they have dominated. They knew all the routes surrounding all those bushes within Kwara and other cities. They knew it,” he added.