Whereabouts of Abducted Pastor and 13-Year-Old Daughter Are Not Known Despite Ransom Payment
by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – The fate of a Protestant pastor and his 13-year-old daughter who were abducted in Gusau, northwestern Nigeria last month is not known, despite a ransom having been paid for their release, Christian Daily International (CDI) reports.
Pastor Isa Andrew, chaplain with All Saints Protestant Church of the Zamfara State Police Command, and his 13-year-old daughter, Grace Isa Andrew, were kidnapped from their home on July 14, CDI reports. Family and friends of the Andrews rallied to pay the 6 million naira ($3,770) demanded by the captors, but it was to no avail.
The captors went on to deliver a video of the pastor and his daughter in which it was explained the two would be killed if a further ransom of 6 million naira was not delivered along with three motorcycles by August 15. “Relatives received a video of the blindfolded pastor making an appeal for payment of the ransom, his daughter standing beside him with an AK-47 rifle strapped to her shoulder as a sign that she would be married off and made to join the assailants,” CDI explained in its report.
Confirming that his daughter was being mistreated and that his health was suffering, Pastor Andrew said his family had sold everything they had to make the original ransom payment. “Please come to our aid, assist us,” Pastor Andrew pleads in the video. “We have been given from now up to next week Thursday, 15 August 2024, otherwise I will be executed, and my daughter will be forcefully married out. She’s just 13 years of age. Please help us. I need your help. The Lord bless you.”
The deadline for the second ransom has passed but, as of August 20, it was not known whether the Andrews have been killed or whether they remain in captivity somewhere.
More Christians are killed for their faith in Nigeria than in all of the rest of the world combined, the Open Doors international Christian advocacy organization has reported.
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