Easter Sunday Massacre, Army’s False Rescue Claims, and a Suspended Lawmaker: Civil Society Breaks Silence on Kaduna’s Descent into Terror
Five worshippers killed. Thirty-eight abducted from two churches. A military rescue claim the families say is a lie. And a lawmaker suspended for daring to speak the truth.
This is Ariko, Kachia Local Government Area, Kaduna State, on Easter Sunday, 2026.
On the morning of 5th April, heavily armed terrorists stormed Ariko Community in Awon Ward, attacking the First ECWA Church and the Catholic Church while congregants gathered for one of the most sacred observances on the Christian calendar. When the violence subsided, five people were dead and thirty-eight others had been dragged away into captivity.
What followed was, to many observers, almost as disturbing as the attack itself.
The Nigerian Army issued a widely circulated statement claiming to have rescued 31 of the abducted victims. But the families of those victims say it never happened. As of the time of this publication, all abducted persons remain in the hands of their captors. The Kuturmi Unity Development Association (KUDA), whose president Dr. J.D. Ariko signed a statement on 6th April, said plainly: “Contrary to the reports being circulated, all the abducted persons are still in captivity with their abductors. This clearly invalidates any claim of a successful rescue operation.” KUDA’s Publicity Secretary, Hon. Manasseh Samuel, co-signed the statement.
The families have confirmed they remain in direct contact with the abductors, who have themselves confirmed the victims are in their camps.
In a press statement released on 10th April, the Civil Society for Good Governance and Accountability, a coalition of over thirty human rights and community organisations, described the Army’s statement as propaganda, saying it revealed “unfortunate efforts at deception rather than a plausible effort at the rescue of the abducted.”
But for the civil society coalition, the Army’s false claims are not the whole story. They point to a recognisable pattern. On 18th January 2026, armed bandits abducted 177 worshippers from three churches in Kurmin Wali, Kajuru LGA. The Police and the Kajuru LGA Chairman initially denied the attack entirely. Public outrage eventually forced an acknowledgment. The coalition’s statement is blunt: “The playbook is unchanged: deny, deflect, discredit, then concede only when pressure becomes unbearable.”
The Ariko attack is also not the only active emergency in the region.
On 29th March 2026, Palm Sunday, terrorists killed 13 people in a night raid on Kahir, Aribi Ward, Kagarko LGA, and abducted 28 others. Ransoms of 200 million naira are being demanded. Those 28 remain in captivity. On 31st March, bandits abducted 11 people from Zunturum, also in Kachia LGA, and are demanding 150 million naira and 10 motorcycles for their release. In Maro Kasuwa, Easter Sunday also brought bloodshed: three people were killed and an unconfirmed number abducted.
Kachia LGA Chairman Dr. Manzo Daniel Maigari’s own admission compounds the scale of the crisis. He has acknowledged that 74 communities in Kachia have been deserted due to insecurity, a figure the coalition describes as “a clear indictment of both state and federal governments.”
Yet even as communities are hollowed out by violence, truth-tellers are being punished.
The Honourable Speaker of the Kachia LGA Legislative Council, Hon. Mark Bawa, gave a press interview published in The Punch on 5th April addressing the reality of the Ariko attack. Two days later, the Executive Chairman issued a directive suspending him indefinitely. The suspension letter alleged that the Speaker had “misrepresented the true position on ground” and had failed to attend a meeting with the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Army’s 1 Division “to clarify and possibly apologize.” The letter called his conduct “a deliberate attempt to sabotage the efforts of Government.”
The civil society coalition has rejected the suspension in unambiguous terms. “Suspending a lawmaker for speaking about a security incident that affects his own constituents makes him a double victim,” the statement reads. The signatories include legal practitioners, professors, community associations, and advocacy organisations drawn from across southern Kaduna and the Middle Belt.
Their demands are clear: the unconditional reinstatement of Hon. Mark Bawa; the immediate rescue or facilitated release of all abductees across Ariko, Zunturum, Kahir, and Maro Kasuwa; the return of displaced persons from 74 abandoned communities; and full activation of the government’s constitutional obligations under Section 14(2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution.
“These are not numbers,” the statement says. “They are mothers, fathers, children, and grandparents whose safe return must be the single most urgent priority of every security agency in Kaduna State.”
As of press time, not one of the hostages has been returned.
