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At least 80 churchgoers who were previously thought to have been abducted in Kaduna State have returned home, police say.
The state police spokesperson, Mansur Hassan, told Reuters in a phone conversation on Monday that new investigations showed that 80 of the missing people were not kidnapped.
Hassan said the missing individuals ran to nearby villages to escape the attack.
He hinted that people returned to their homes in Kurmin Wali over the weekend as conditions calmed and noted that they have been asked to report to headquarters for identity checks, health screenings, and questioning.
The policeman stated, “Currently, we have invited all of these individuals to the Kaduna State Police Headquarters for verification of their identities, screening and health assessments.”
But CAN’s Kaduna State chairman, Reverend Caleb Maaji, said he does not know of anyone returning.
Maaji also told Reuters that “based on the information available to me, the number of those kidnapped remains 177, except for the 11 who escaped and are receiving care in the hospital.”
Recall that News Central reports that gunmen reportedly kidnapped more than 160 Christian worshippers after attacking two churches in Kaduna State, northern Nigeria, in January 2026.
During Sunday mass, the gunmen broke into the two churches in Kurmin Wali village in the predominantly Christian Kajuru district.
Reverend Joseph Hayab, head of the Christian Association of Nigeria in northern Nigeria, said the attackers arrived in large numbers, blocked the church entrances and forced worshippers into nearby bush areas.
“The actual number they took was 172, but nine escaped, so 163 are with them,” Hayab told AFP.
“The attackers came in numbers and blocked the entrance of the churches and forced the worshippers out into the bush,” he added.
The next day, the Kaduna State Commissioner of Police described the abductions report as “mere falsehoods which are being peddled by conflict entrepreneurs who want to cause chaos.”
Later that day, the Nigerian Police Force issued a statement acknowledging concerns about the reported incident and explaining that conflicting accounts had delayed confirmation.
“Those remarks, which have since been widely misinterpreted, were not a denial of the incident but a measured response pending confirmation of details from the field, including the identities and number of those affected,” the force said.
