HURIWA says Kogi Church invasion by terrorists, direct affront to Tinubu’s security emergency

● Asks President to crush, not cuddle terrorists

[Press Release] Even as Ejiba, a community in Yagba West Local Government Area of Kogi State, was thrown into panic on Sunday morning after armed bandits stormed a church service and abducted several worshippers, according to local accounts, HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has told President Bola Ahmed Tinubu that the attack is a direct affront to the President’s recent declaration of security emergency just as HURIWA said the terrorists have literally poked their fingers in the eyes of the president challenging him to grow balls and come after them.

HURIWA learnt that the attack took place at a newly established Cherubim and Seraphim Church, witnesses claimed just as a direct eye witness Adegboyega Oguns, who was inside the church when the gunmen arrived, said the congregation scattered in fear as the assailants advanced.

Oguns reported that the church leader, popularly known as Orlando, his wife, and several others were taken away during the assault.
“It’s a new Cherubim and Seraphim church. The pastor popularly called Orlando and wife with some others have been kidnapped,” he wrote on Egbe Mekun Parrot platform on Facebook.

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“It is serious. We all ran out of church.”

The incident adds to the rising security concerns across parts of Kogi State.

Only a day earlier, another group of armed men attacked the Isanlu Makutu–Idofin route in Yagba East Local Government Area, forcing residents and travellers to flee for safety. Witnesses said the Saturday afternoon attack created panic throughout the area.

Authorities and community members say the exact number of people kidnapped on Sunday remains unclear, as updates are still emerging.

HURIWA lamented that the tidal wave of attacks has heightened fear in neighbouring towns, prompting many residents to remain indoors while commuters are diverting to avoid the troubled route.

HURIWA condemned the brazen and ruthless act of terrorism unleashed on Christian worshippers by Fulani terrorists even as the Rights group reminded president Tinubu that nearly 200 students snatched from their dormitory in Nigeria State are still languishing in pains, agonies and starvation in the hands of their captors who abducted them whilst wielded all sorts of military grades weapons of mass destruction.

HIRING recalled that on 21 November 2025, Fulani terrorists abducted 315 Nigerian Christians from St Mary’s School in Papiri Niger State, Nigeria. No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

The victims included 303 students and 12 teachers. Following the attack, all other schools in Niger State, as well as many in nearby states, closed indefinitely.

Fifty students later escaped and returned to their families.

Specificalky, saintt Mary’s School, according to HURIWA is a Catholic secondary school in Papiri, on the northern edge of Kainji Lake, Nigeria. It is located near a critical road linking the towns of Mokwa and Yelwa.Prior to the kidnapping, the school enrolled 629 students.

Besides, HURIWA reminded Tinubu that since he assumed office, Nigeria has struggled with an abduction crisis; at least five mass kidnappings had occurred in schools since President Bola Tinubu took office in May 2023.

The region of Niger in which the attack occurred was suffering particularly from banditry in the period leading up to the abductions.

The attack occurred amid a security crisis in Nigeria. That week, kidnappers attacked residences in Zamfara State, a Kebbi State school, and a Kwara State church, seizing dozens at each location.

Comrade Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko the National Coordinator of HURIWA stated that President Tinubu’s declaration of security emergency was bereft of a well structured timeline just as the Rights group faulted the strategy of the government which revolved around begging terrorists to free their hostages as if to say the government has become so weak and dysfunctional.

HURIWA said that: “Political impunity and the large presence of saboteurs embedded within the armed forces of Nigeria is the primary cause of the proliferation of successful attacks by terrorists. When the government put in place by virtue of the constitutional provisions that creates the fundamental task of government to be the protection of lives and property of citizens and to guarantee the welfare and well-being of citizens, deviates from these duties and then spectacularly failed to keep to its lawful obligation to protect the citizens, what you see in the society is the proliferation of armed groups and armed non-state actors.

“The government has got no workable security and intelligence strategies effective and efficiently implemented and enforced against all illegal armed killers.

“The government and more particularly the president of the federation is guilty of allowing nepotism to dictate key security and intelligence appointments to a scandalous extent that now that it is evidently clear that the Nigeria Police Force has failed to discharge her basic and most fundamental duty of being the primary law enforcement and crime prevention agency in Nigeria, the insistence of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to keep on the job his kinsman and erstwhile personal security aide Mr. Kayode Egbetokun as the IGP and even violated the law of public service Act by amending the Police Act of 2020 and then apply the amendments retroactively just so the non-performing IGP Kayode Egbetokun benefits and stay on beyond his statutory and legal retirement age of 60, is one of the major cause of the security nightmares and the unprecedented heights of insecurity characterised by terror attacks, mass abductions of students, kidnapping of citizens, genocide targeting Christians and ethnic minorities in the North by Islamists, all these have escalated because the person holding the key position of the chief of security of Nigeria or the IGP is too old and has run out of any meaningful ideas to prevent crimes from happening.

“The insistence of the President to appoint only his kinsmen in the strategic posts of Chief of Defence Staff, chief of Army Staff and the DG of DSS is also not helping matters since there is no merit in some of these appointments so there are bound to be gaps in the strategic approached the different security institutions adopt to fight terrorism and the high rate of sophisticated and highly organised crimes that have become a commonplace.

“The lack of the necessary political will on the part of the president to wage relentless war on terror is responsible for the escalation of violence and mass murders of Nigerians. The president is yet to prosecute terrorists funders transparently because there is suspicion that due to his political ambition to return in 2027 for second term has made his administration to compromise with these political forces who are the sponsors of terrorism in Nigeria.

“Granting amnesties to terrorists or what the government calls reintegration and Rehabilitation of repentant terrorists is the greatest crime against humanity because this policy is anchored on injustice and illegality. Nigeria is a nation that is governed by law and so if the government disobeys the laws particularly the counter terror Act of the Federation to negotiate and grant Amnesty to terrorists, then this definitely leads to escalation because terrorists do not repent and they deserve to face the full weight if the law. Why should the government use taxpayers money for the Rehabilitation of mass killers and terrorists and then neglect the key aspect of granting justice to the victims of terrorism then it is unconstitutional and reprehensible. Tinubu, stop cuddling terrorists. Kill them now.”

*COMRADE EMMANUEL NNADOZIE ONWUBIKO,
NATIONAL COORDINATOR,
HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA). Sunday November 30th, 2025.