Missionaries free: LDS in Nigeria praised for resolving abduction

Top LDS Church leaders in Salt Lake City are crediting Nigerian church leaders for negotiating the release of four Nigerian LDS missionaries late Wednesday night in the west African nation, after the abductors were paid for expenses incurred during the time the men were held.

The four are Elders Akande Adebayo Egunjobi and Emeka Henry Ekufu of Lagos and Elders Uchenna Anthony Eze and Hope Aiboni Isaiah of Enugu, Nigeria.

The men, all in their early to mid-20s, were abducted Saturday from their apartment in the village of Emohua, near Port Harcourt, where the mission headquarters for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is located.

During a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Elder M. Russell Ballard of the church's Council of the Twelve told reporters the missionaries were in good shape when they were released at 2:40 p.m. MST on Wednesday, which was 10:40 p.m. in Port Harcourt.

Emphasizing the church doesn't pay ransom for any members who are abducted, he said the church was asked "to help pay for the food and care of the missionaries. The total cost involved was $810 to reimburse the expenses that those who were holding them hostage had incurred."

Elder Ballard said the bishop of the ward in which the missionaries served — Bishop Sancho N. Chukwu of the Emohua 1st Ward — was the main negotiator working for the church to secure the men's release, with help from other African church leaders.

Bishop Sancho "talked several times with the kidnappers and met with one of them once," according to Elder Quentin L. Cook, executive director of the church's Missionary Department. He also spoke at the press conference and called Bishop Sancho's efforts "heroic."

The missionaries stayed at the bishop's home Wednesday night, and they will continue to serve the remainder of their missions within Nigeria, Elder Cook said. Their emotional needs will be tended to by local church leaders before they return to their assignments, he said.

Elder Cook said local tribal leaders were involved in helping secure the missionaries' release in concert with LDS leaders there, but there was no police involvement in the negotiations.

Elder Ballard said the captors "came to the conclusion very quickly that they had taken the wrong people. This was the first time anything like this with a religious organization has occurred," and the local community was upset about the abduction. He said he has no details about who the abductors were or what their motives were, and the questions are moot at this point.