Nigeria’s Shameful Silence as Armed Fulani Militia Abduct Anglican Priest and Wife in Kaduna

Nigeria’s deepening security collapse reached another tragic milestone this week when armed men stormed Nissi village in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State, abducting an Anglican priest, Reverend Edwin Achi, and his wife, Sarah Achi, from their home in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

According to church members who spoke with SaharaReporters, the attackers — described by locals as armed Fulani militia — invaded the quiet community before dawn, firing shots to terrorize residents before dragging the couple away into the surrounding forests. The Nigerian media, as usual, remained largely silent. Only after local parishioners began raising alarms did news of the abduction trickle out.

This attack is just one in a relentless string of kidnappings and killings that have turned Kaduna into one of Nigeria’s most dangerous regions. For years, citizens have begged Abuja to act decisively, but Nigeria’s federal and state governments have responded with a familiar mix of excuses, empty condemnations, and gross inaction.

In the past month alone, bandits have murdered police officers, slaughtered children, and razed entire villages in southern Kaduna — yet there has been no serious military operation, no arrests, and no accountability. Just last week, two police officers were gunned down inside their own Divisional Headquarters in Zonkwa, Zangon Kataf Local Government Area. Earlier, nine people, including three children, were massacred in Layin Danauta village in Birnin Gwari.

Local sources told SaharaReporters that the slain minors were the daughters of one Alhaji Salisu Maiwada, and that the other victims included five married men and a young bachelor. Several others were severely injured. Yet no government official visited, no security agency provided updates, and no minister of defense made a statement.

The people of Kaduna — and Nigeria at large — are now left to live under the rule of armed groups that move and kill freely. The security forces, underpaid and ill-equipped, have largely retreated. The Nigerian leadership continues to issue hollow promises while ordinary citizens bury their dead and ransom their loved ones.

Every new abduction and killing exposes a nation where impunity has become the norm, and where the government’s silence is as deadly as the bullets of the militias terrorizing its citizens.

Until those in power begin to value Nigerian lives over political survival, tragedies like the kidnapping of Reverend Achi and his wife will keep repeating — another grim reminder of how far the country has fallen.