The most chilling part of this tragedy is no longer the gunmen in the forest. It is the cold certainty that the state knows—and has chosen stillness over truth.
According to Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, the Kaduna State Police Commissioner is not in the dark about the abducted churchgoers. He knows. The intelligence exists. The reports are there. The cries have reached the corridors of command. Yet nothing meaningful moves. Not because the police are helpless—but because obedience now matters more than justice.
This is not incompetence. It is choreography.
Odinkalu’s accusation cuts deeper than outrage: the Commissioner, he argues, is acting out a script written by political paymasters—one that demands denial, delay, and deliberate quietness. A script whose reward is job security. A script whose cost is human lives.
Churches were attacked. Worshippers were taken. Families screamed. Civil society spoke. Clergy raised alarm. But the official response followed a familiar pattern: minimize the numbers, question the narrative, stall the urgency. When the truth threatens power, the truth becomes the enemy.
This is where the shock truly lies: the Nigerian state no longer merely fails victims—it manages their suffering.
Acknowledging the kidnapping would force accountability. Acting decisively would disrupt political calculations. So silence is chosen. Bureaucratic calm replaces moral duty.
What kind of policing treats mass abduction as an inconvenience? What kind of command structure sees Christians dragged from altars and decides the greater risk is displeasing superiors?
Odinkalu’s warning is stark: when a Police Commissioner prioritizes loyalty over law, the uniform becomes a costume, and the badge a prop. Security turns performative. Protection becomes selective. Truth is negotiated.
Kaduna is not facing a security crisis alone. It is facing a collapse of conscience.
And until those sworn to protect are willing to risk their positions for the people they serve, churches will remain soft targets, victims will remain statistics to be disputed, and justice will remain hostage—to scripts written far above the crime scenes.
