The Christian Association of Nigeria in Kaduna State on Thursday declared that it paid the sum of N300 million ransom to secure the release for over 500 of its members who were kidnapped in Tue past two years.

The State Chairman of CAN, Rev. Joseph Hayab, spoke in Kaduna,  decried the activities of bandits, armed robbers and other criminal elements in the State.

He alleged the high level of insecurity in a particular a church paid N20 million to kidnappers as ransom.

He lamented that the activities of the criminals had forced inhabitants of 10 villages to flee from their homes to other parts in the state.

“We have been computing the numbers of Christian population kidnapped in Kaduna State in the last two years, over 500 of them that we know — either in the villages or in town — have been kidnapped.

“The people have moved out of some settlements completely and we have closed down our churches because of the activities of the kidnappers”.

“We are still computing, but at the last count, the church has coughed out over N300m as ransom to kidnappers. In the case of the chief of Kajuru that was killed, it was N8 million that the kidnappers took.

“There was a Reverend Father in Kachia, they took about N1.5 million. They (kidnappers) still killed him. In Dankande, Birnin-Gwari, they collected over N7m before they released those people to us”, he said.