KADUNA, Nigeria — Two of three pastors kidnapped in north-central Nigeria on March 21 have been released while the third died after being left in the wild, sources said.
Iliya Anto, initially said to have been released by the kidnappers because of ill health, was found dead in the bush 10 days after the abduction, according to Jibrailu Wobiya, general secretary of the United Church of Christ in Nigeria (HEKAN). Details of his death remained unclear but he was reportedly said to have died after the kidnappers left him in the wild. Anto was a pastor and vice president of the HEKAN in Kaduna.
The other two pastors — Emmanuel Dziggau, president of the church, and Yakubu Dzarma, a retired church leader — were released March 30, Wobiya said.
Wobiya declined to say whether his church paid the $500,000 the kidnappers had demanded for the release of the pastors.
(MS)
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