The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah on Monday said his nephew and a driver who abducted over three months ago are still in captivity.
He disclosed this at the ongoing high-level forum on political communication and issue-based campaign in the 2023 general elections in Abuja, where he spoke on the need for Nigerians to desist from politics of identity.
The revered cleric said the incident took place along the Kaduna-Abuja Road well over three months ago, stating that his nephew and his wife were coming to Abuja to get medical care when they were abducted.
He also made it known that the captors had requested for N50 million, but later reduced it to N20 million, stating that so far, he has spent over N30 million to secure the release of some abducted priests working under him.
The event which was organized by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies, with the collaboration of The Kukah Centre, was to intimate and educate the politicians ahead of the election campaigns.
According to Kukah, Nigerians should vote for political leaders who truly understand the situation and not queue behind those displaying themselves as messiah.
“When we talk about the 2023 elections, we need to talk about how we will get ourselves out of all of these.
“The questions that the ordinary Nigerians are asking are legitimate and it is the responsibility of those who govern to deal frontally with the issue. We need to re-image and re-imagine Nigeria because the Nigeria that we have today is not the Nigeria that many of us can recognize.
“Before coming here, I was speaking with my brother, because two days ago, my nephew, his mother, and the driver were on their way to Abuja when they ran into the hands of kidnappers. My brother’s wife had an amputation some three months ago and they were bringing her to Abuja, so when the kidnappers saw the stomp on her leg, they had mercy on her and let her go.
“Right now, as we speak, my nephew and the driver of the vehicle are currently in the hands of the kidnappers, how is it going to end? I don’t know. Then they said they wanted N50m, they then said they wanted N20m, now they are staying on N30m.” Said Kukah.
