We Got There And Realised the Area Was Fully Dominated by Bandits” — Freed CAC Worshipper Speaks

According to a report by Channels TV on Sunday, November 23, 2025, one of the recently freed victims of the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC), Eruku abduction has revealed chilling details about the environment in which the kidnappers held them hostage.

The survivor, speaking on Channels Television, said the abductees quickly realised that they had been taken into a forest area completely controlled by armed bandits.

The 38 worshippers were kidnapped last week during a sudden attack on their church shortly before an evening programme. After days of coordinated security operations, they were released on Sunday.

According to the survivor, the moment they entered the forest, it became clear that the criminals were entrenched and familiar with every corner of the terrain. “When we got there, we really knew that it was a dominated area by these evil people called bandit,” he said. “What we saw there, nobody can imagine it.”

He explained that the kidnappers moved confidently across the bushes, demonstrating mastery of routes that connect several communities across Kwara and neighbouring states. He described the bush camp as an organised hideout, occupied by criminals who seemed to operate undisturbed.

The survivor added that the experience shattered their initial hope of escaping. “With what we saw, nobody can escape from that place. They dominated the whole place. They knew all the routes surrounding the bushes,” he said

Kwara State governor, who announced the release had earlier confirmed that the rescue operation was complex due to the dense forest and the sophisticated network of routes used by the bandits. The area, believed to link parts of Kwara, Kogi, and Ekiti, has long been identified as a corridor exploited by criminal gangs.

The survivor praised the collaboration between local vigilantes, police operatives, Amotekun corps, and other agencies, saying their release would not have been possible without the combined pressure put on the bandits.

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