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Nigeria killing field for Christians: Islamic terrorists murder abducted pastor after collecting ransom

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Islamic terrorists in Nigeria’s Kaduna murdered Reverend Dauda Bature of Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) last month, despite receiving the ransom they demanded after abducting him, International Christian Concern (ICC) reports. As rights groups continue to raise the alarm about a potential Christian genocide in Nigeria, the US Commission on Religious Freedom warned in its 2021 annual report that the country is becoming a “killing field for Christians.”

Rev. Dauda was abducted from his farm on November 8th, ICC reports. The kidnappers demanded a ransom payment, which Rev. Dauda’s wife raised and gave them on November 18. However, instead of releasing her husband, Mrs. Daud was reportedly kidnapped. Mrs. Daud was released on December 6, but her husband was murdered, ICC reports.

Since 2015, Islamic terrorists in Nigeria have murdered nearly 12,000 Christians. Thousands of Christians have been abducted, over 3,000 this year alone. Despite the relentless documented murders, abductions, and displacements of Christians in Nigeria at the hands of Islamic terrorists, the Biden administration last month removed Nigeria from its list of “Countries of Particular Concern” which have engaged in or tolerated “systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom.”

Decrying Nigeria’s removal from the US list, Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria Rev. Joseph John Hayab said in a statement that he met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on November 19, while Blinken was on an official visit to Nigeria: “When I met with Antony John Blinken… I expressed how disappointed the Christians in Nigeria were following the US’ deletion of Nigeria from the CPC list.”

“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,” Hayab added. “What that signifies is telling the patient to go home and die.”