{"id":16086,"date":"2024-03-30T18:51:31","date_gmt":"2024-03-30T13:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/30\/hope-for-persecuted-christians-nigerian-pastor-wife-score-victory-after-3-years-behind-bars\/"},"modified":"2024-03-30T18:51:31","modified_gmt":"2024-03-30T13:21:31","slug":"hope-for-persecuted-christians-nigerian-pastor-wife-score-victory-after-3-years-behind-bars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/30\/hope-for-persecuted-christians-nigerian-pastor-wife-score-victory-after-3-years-behind-bars\/","title":{"rendered":"Hope For Persecuted Christians? Nigerian Pastor, Wife Score Victory After 3 Years Behind Bars"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-cbn-component-name=\"wysiwyg_editor\">\n<p>A pastor and his wife have scored a significant victory in Nigeria after being acquitted of wrongdoing based on accusations they kidnapped and proselytized a 12-year-old girl.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Listen to them on the latest\u00a0episode\u00a0of \u201cQuick Start\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"482\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/playlist.megaphone.fm\/?p=CCBNC3640195386\" width=\"100%\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The exoneration of the Rev. Jonah Gangas and his wife, Josephine, is a rare victory in Nigeria, a place where Christian persecution is rapidly increasing.<\/p>\n<p>According to ADF International, Jonah and Josephine Gangas\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/adfinternational.org\/news\/gangas-acquittal\">came under fire<\/a>\u00a0after taking in a runaway Muslim girl in 2013 and allowing her to live with them for seven years.<\/p>\n<p>After graduation from secondary school, that girl reunited with her family.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s when,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/adfinternational.org\/news\/gangas-acquittal\">purportedly<\/a>\u00a0at the behest of a Muslim organization, the couple, who preach with Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA Church), were accused of kidnapping the girl.<\/p>\n<p>They were subsequently arrested in 2020 and imprisoned for three years without bail.<\/p>\n<p>But, according to ADF International, \u201cafter many delayed hearings, the High Court of Justice of Kaduna State released their decision, fully acquitting the couple of wrongdoing in a \u2018no case\u2019 motion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Attorney Sean Nelson said he is \u201cthankful\u201d for the acquittal and that no one should be punished for sharing kindness and compassion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor simply helping this young girl, and taking her in during a moment of need, they were punished, prosecuted, and imprisoned,\u201d Nelson\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/adfinternational.org\/news\/gangas-acquittal\">said<\/a>. \u201cWe are pleased that the court has sided with Reverend and Mrs. Gangas, and we hope that this decision will positively impact other Christians and religious minorities in the country who are being unjustly punished for their faith, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As CBN News\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.faithwire.com\/2024\/03\/22\/christian-persecution-in-nigeria-intensifies-as-colleges-reportedly-ban-christian-worship\/\">has reported<\/a>, cases like this are hardly rare in Nigeria.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, Nelson and ADF International recently sounded the alarm over two universities \u2014 one federal and one state \u2014 that have reportedly barred Christian students from \u201cbeing able to use any facilities for worship [or] fellowship.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure>\n<div class=\"jeg_video_container jeg_video_content\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"New Horrors, Christian Persecution in Nigeria: Experts Sound Alarm\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ByyAv_taTD0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>\u201cThe reason you know it\u2019s discrimination is that \u2026 the Muslim students are completely allowed to use all of these facilities,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re preventing Christians from using those spaces, from worshipping on campus, having fellowship; they have to go off campus to do that. It\u2019s just plain discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nelson said such restrictions violate Nigeria\u2019s constitution, which protects freedom of religion and belief.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you combine [the college issue] with some of the targeted killings that Christians are facing all across the north \u2014 there\u2019s been hundreds of kidnappings recently just the last couple weeks,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cIt\u2019s a really horrible situation for them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.opendoors.org\/en-US\/\">Open Doors\u2019 World Watch List 2024<\/a>\u00a0placed\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.faithwire.com\/2023\/11\/22\/100000-christians-have-been-murdered-inside-deadly-persecution-raging-inside-nigeria\/\">Nigeria in the sixth spot<\/a>\u00a0in its rankings of nations where anti-Christian persecution and discrimination are the worst. A line from a press release announcing the results read, \u201cMore than 82% of Christians killed across the globe for faith reasons were in Nigeria.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more about the disturbing persecution issues in Nigeria\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.faithwire.com\/2024\/03\/22\/christian-persecution-in-nigeria-intensifies-as-colleges-reportedly-ban-christian-worship\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www1.cbn.com\/cbnnews\/world\/2024\/march\/hope-for-persecuted-christians-nigerian-pastor-wife-score-victory-after-3-years-behind-bars\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A pastor and his wife have scored a significant victory in Nigeria after being acquitted of wrongdoing based on accusations they kidnapped and proselytized a 12-year-old girl. Listen to them on the latest\u00a0episode\u00a0of \u201cQuick Start\u201d The exoneration of the Rev. Jonah Gangas and his wife, Josephine, is a rare victory in Nigeria, a place where [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[]},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16086"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cccfornews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}