Morning Star News, September 22, 2020
A church elder was shot as his daughters were kidnapped in northwest Nigeria on Friday, Sept. 18.
Hassana and Hussaina Garba, teenaged Christian twin sisters, were kidnapped from their home in northwest Nigeria’s Katsina state. The kidnappers shot their father, Ibrahim Garba, in the stomach.
Kidnappings by various criminal elements have become rampant in Katsina state the past few years, with the high number committed by predominantly Muslim Fulanis.
Kwakware area resident Charles Yahaya said “Testimonies and exhibits at the crime scene show that the kidnappers were very organized, very informed on their target and heavily armed. Christian girls in northern Nigeria are forcefully converted to Islam and married off, thereby becoming sex slaves.”
Another teenaged Christian girl, the only daughter of a widow, was kidnapped in Kaduna state on August 30 and forced to convert to Islam.
Her mother reported the disappearance to Local Government Area police. But the police insisted on her unlawful detention to achieve the wish of her abductors to Islamize the young Christian girl.
After much prayer and the involvement of well-meaning Nigerians, the girl was released back to her mother.
According to a post from Steadfast Global on 2nd October, “Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) are reporting that twins Hassanna & Hussaina Garba were released on 21 September. We thank God and pray for their recovery and also for others affected by the attack that led to their abduction on 18 September. “