JOS — Fresh details have emerged surrounding how a senior clergyman, Rev. Hassan Yunisim Mijah, masterminded a foiled conspiracy to kidnap the wives of the current and former Anglican Bishops of Jos, Mrs. Esther G. Gongden and Mrs. Gloria Kwashi.
The intricate kidnap plot engineered by the cleric was exposed when a devout Muslim naval officer recruited by the mastermind secretly blew the whistle and alerted the Bishop of Jos, Right Reverend Ephraim Gongden, at his residence in the Rantya area of Jos South Local Government Area.
According to insider accounts, the naval personnel visited the bishop’s living room and disclosed that he had been approached by Rev. Mijah’s syndicate to carry out the abduction. Stating that his religious beliefs and moral upbringing prevented him from participating in such a crime, the officer agreed to the bishop’s request to involve law enforcement.
Upon being briefed, operatives of the Plateau State Police Command’s Vigilance and Criminal Response Unit (VCRU) instructed the naval officer to play along with the mastermind.
While at the police station, Rev. Mijah—who serves as a Rev. Canon under the Anglican Diocese of Jos—placed a phone call to the naval personnel demanding an update on his assigned task: securing a safehouse to hold the victims. Working in coordination with detectives, the naval officer provided a police-monitored address located on the outskirts of Jos.
Believing the safehouse was ready, Rev. Mijah traveled to the designated location alongside two military personnel—identified as Sergeant Ezra Sunday of the Nigerian Air Force and OS Usman Khalid of the Nigerian Navy—to collect the keys. Police operatives staged at the location immediately took the clergyman and his accomplices into custody.
Ransom Demands and Failed Militia Negotiations
Subsequent police investigations revealed that Rev. Mijah had instructed his co-conspirators to demand a ₦100 million ransom from the diocese, with a bottom line not to accept less than ₦50 million.
Detectives also uncovered that the clergyman initially attempted to contract a Fulani militia gang to execute the abduction. However, negotiations collapsed after the militia leader insisted that his men must sexually assault the two women during their captivity—a condition Rev. Mijah reportedly rejected before turning to military personnel to carry out the job.
Motive and Political Background
Background findings indicate a history of administrative friction between the mastermind and the diocesan leadership. Rev. Mijah had previously been dismissed by the former Bishop of Jos, Most Rev. Benjamin Kwashi, but was later reinstated by the current bishop, Rt. Rev. Ephraim Gongden. Following his reinstatement, Mijah demanded back-pay allowances, which the diocese declined to settle.
It was further gathered that Rev. Mijah, an indigene of Adamawa State, has been nursing political ambitions and is actively contesting for the House of Representatives seat representing Numan/Lamuorde/Demsa Federal Constituency under the platform of the African Democratic Congress (ADC).
The Plateau State Police Command confirmed that the suspects remain in custody, while military authorities overseeing Sector 1 of Operation Enduring Peace have been formally notified as legal proceedings and expanded investigations continue.
