The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Matthew Kukah, has said that his nephew and driver are still in the kidnapper's den. More so, he said that he has parted with almost N30m as ransom for his abducted priests. He also affirmed that the 2023 election campaigns should be based on issues affecting the nation.
He made these statements during the “High-level forum on political communication and issue-based campaign in the 2023 general elections” organised by the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS) in collaboration with The Kukah Centre. The event was held in Abuja on Monday ahead of the commencement of political campaigns towards the 2023 elections.
Kukah said, “When we talk about the 2023 elections, we need to talk about how we will get ourselves out of all of these. The questions that the ordinary Nigerians are asking are legitimate and it is the responsibility of those who govern to deal frontally with the issues.
“We need to re-image and re-imagine Nigeria because the Nigeria that we have today is not the Nigeria that many of us can recognise.
“Before coming here, I was speaking with my brother, because two days ago, my nephew, his mother, and the driver were on their way to Abuja when they ran into the hands of kidnappers.
“My brother’s wife had an amputation some three months ago and they were bringing her to Abuja, so when the kidnappers saw the stomp on her leg, they had mercy on her and let her go.
“Right now, as we speak, my nephew and the driver of the vehicle are currently in the hands of the kidnappers, how it’s going to end I don’t know. Then they said they wanted N50million, they then said they wanted N20 million, now they are staying on N30 million.
“I am the Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, I have spent about N30million of the money I don’t have because my priests were kidnapped and I have nowhere to turn to.
“I am not ashamed to say it because these are essential realities. Anyone who wants to become president of Nigeria cannot pretend to stand before me without giving me empirical evidence from his or her record about how they intend to deal with these issues because there is a collective feeling of alienation.”
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