By Ebere Inyama
(Kabba/Bunu County, Kogi State) Members of the First Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) in Ayetoro Kiri Community in the Kabba/Bunu county of Kogi State, who were kidnapped on Sunday, December 14, 2025 by terrorists are begging for their freedom.
The captives, comprising elderly women, middle-aged men, teenagers and children, appeared to have been assembled by their captors for a group video in a forest to plead for help from the Nigerian government.
TruthNigeria counted at least 28 victims in the video posted online by Foundation for Investigative Journalism.
The victims were barefooted, unkempt and starved.
“The government should come to our rescue,” a man among the victims said in the video while others around him voiced support for his words.
“Behold my home town people and family members as victims in the den of their captors,” he continued.
“Kogi State and Federal Government, help Aiyetoro Kiri, please,” he added.
Earlier on Saturday 19 December, 2025, a Facebook user who goes by the name, Aledare Jide Sunday, posted about the killing of two brothers by terrorists in Bunu county.
“How do you explain that a Bunu person lost his elder brother to bandits in Olle and had his younger brother abducted by the same people at the same time?” Sunay wrote.
“Just this evening at Olle. What have we done as a people?”, Sunday lamented in the post.
How they were kidnapped
Eye witnesses said that the attackers surrounded the community and targeted worshippers during the peaceful Sunday service, kidnapping more than 10 elderly individuals, all over 70 years old, and more than 12 children aged between 3 and 8.
Killed in the attack, according to a report by TruthNigeria was a Student Pastor named Jimoh Adeyemi, a seminary graduate recently returned to serve in his community.
The bandits reportedly operated freely for hours and even forced some captives to return home to collect ransom money before taking them away.
This is the third major attack on Aiyetoro Kiri in 2025.
On 27 March, 2025, five individuals were reportedly kidnapped and held for over four months before being released after a ransom payment on July 12.
The second incident reportedly occurred on November 26, when a person was killed and petroleum products seized as bandits passed through the community.
Residents say the village appears to be a strategic route to and from the bandits’ hideouts.
Kidnappers demand $409,397 as ransom
On December 15, 2025, the attackers reportedly made contact with residents, stating that they wanted to negotiate directly with the government and the following day, December 16, they demanded a ransom of N600 million ($409,397), issuing an ultimatum to the victims’ families and warning of severe consequences if the demand was not met.
As of Thursday 18 December, 2025, streets were eerily quiet, homes left empty, and families were seen relocating to nearby towns and villages in search of safety.
Community sources confirmed that the mass exodus followed a violent attack on the First ECWA Church in Aiyetoro Kiri on Sunday, during which armed assailants stormed the church and kidnapped many people.
A growing concern for Christians in Nigeria’s middle belt
One week after, the kidnap of the ECWA Church members is yet to elicit significant local, national, or international response, leaving the community anxious for the safe return of their loved ones.
The attacks highlight the escalating insecurity in Bunu District and the entire middle belt region, raising fears about the safety of Christians in those areas.
Community leaders say Aiyetoro Kiri appears to be a strategic route for the bandits traveling to and from their hideouts and expressed deep concern over the lack of government-backed security presence in the area.
ECWA church attack took place despite warning from American missionary
Founder of Equipping the Persecuted, an Iowa-based NGO serving persecuted believers, Judd Saul, had on 10 December, 2025, sounded a warning to religious freedom activists at Washington’s National Press Club, under the banner of “Why Nigeria Matters in US Global Strategy for Peace.”
Saul had warned that the Fulani ethnic militia are weaponizing and gathering forces along the some states in the middle belt region and are planning to hit some communities in those areas on or before Christmas.
The way forward
Proactive forest domination, night surveillance, and pre-emptive strikes are the only way to reverse this pattern,” said security analyst Timilehin Ojo.
“There are standing understandings with U.S. partners on forest surveillance using drones and signal intelligence,” said retired military officer and defense analyst Musa Abdullahi
“To stop terrorists from operating freely, that intelligence option must be fully exploited,” Abdullahi added.
Ebere Inyama reports on conflict for TruthNigeria.
