For information about Orthodox Christianity in Nigeria, see here.
For previous coverage of the persecution of Christians in Nigeria from ChristianPersecution.com, see here.
“Christian Co-ed Kidnapped, Forced to Convert in Nigeria,” Morning Star News, October 25, 2023:
ABUJA, Nigeria (Morning Star News) – Personnel of Kaduna State University have aided in the kidnapping and forcible conversion to Islam of a Christian student, according to a campus watchdog group.
Dorcas Adedayo Adekanola, a 20-year-old, first-year chemistry student at the university, was an active member of the Fellowship of Christian Students when other members noticed her absence last month, according to leaders of Campus Mission Watch (CMW).
Her parents received a phone call on Sept. 20 from Christian students saying they were distressed that she was acting strange before her disappearance.
“She was always looking scared, which shows she was being threatened by the Islamists on campus,” CMW leaders said in a press statement. “Dorcas was also not seen on campus for some days.”
After her parents were informed of her absence, they immediately called her mobile phone number.
“Their daughter’s phone was suddenly switched off, indicating that the call was rejected by her abductors who kept her in a house of a Muslim cleric outside the campus,” the CMW leaders said. “We believe she was forcefully abducted and taken out of campus by the Islamists on the fear of parents of the Christian student withdrawing her from the university.”
Fearing she had been abducted and forced to convert to Islam, her parents reported her absence to school authorities and the commissioner of police that day (Sept. 20).
“The following day being 21st of September, Miss Dorcas Adedayo Adekanola was physically seen being conveyed in one of the Kaduna State University (KASU), MAJLIS buses belonging to Muslims in the institution at about 4:30 pm, to the campus Chief Security Officer’s (CSO’s) office,” the CMW leaders said, adding that her parents were quickly alerted and came to the CSO’s office.
“Miss Dorcas told her parents that she was taken to an imam’s house, the imam of Sultan Bello Mosque, in the city of Kaduna, where she was kept against her will and threatened not to disclose that she was coerced into embracing Islam, before being brought back to campus,” the CMW leaders said. “She also told her parents that one Muslim woman, Mallama Amina, an academic staff in the Department of Biochemistry, was appointed as her godmother, who facilitated her forceful conversion to Islam through the renouncing of Christianity and the recitation of Kalma Sha’ada, the Islamic creed.”
The abducted student said Amina also taught her how to do Islamic ablution and prayer, among other Muslim practices, and gave her “a lot in cash and kind,” including Islamic clothing, according to the CMW leaders….
