{"id":31820,"date":"2026-04-14T13:08:51","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T11:08:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=31820"},"modified":"2026-04-14T13:08:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T11:08:51","slug":"nigerian-police-arrest-33-member-gang-over-kwara-church-abductions","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/nigerian-police-arrest-33-member-gang-over-kwara-church-abductions\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigerian police arrest 33-member gang over Kwara church abductions"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Nigerian police have arrested a 33-member gang over a November attack \u200bin which 38 people were abducted from \u200ca church in central Kwara state, police said on Tuesday, as part of a nationwide crackdown on \u200bviolence.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Federal police spokesperson Anthony Okon Placid \u200bsaid the gang carried out the November \u206018 attack on Christ Apostolic Church \u200bin Eruku town and was also responsible for \u200bother kidnappings, cattle rustling, and armed robbery across the region.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The 33 suspects were arrested in co-ordinated raids \u200bacross Kwara and neighbouring Kogi state following \u200bhuman and technical intelligence, part of a wider operation \u200cthat \u2060has detained 50 suspects since January, Placid said in a statement.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Nigeria has long grappled with insecurity, from mass kidnappings for ransom \u200bto banditry and \u200bmilitant \u2060attacks.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Eruku assault intensified pressure on the government, already under \u200bscrutiny from United States President Donald Trump, \u200bwho \u2060had threatened military action over what he calls persecution of Christians.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Placid said the police would charge \u2060several \u200bsuspects soon, while pursuing fleeing \u200bgang members and recovering more weapons.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":31821,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-31820","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Nigerian police have arrested a 33-member gang","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31822,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/31820\/revisions\/31822"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=31820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}