Nearly 10 months after being abducted by terror group Boko Haram in Nigeria, Christian pastor Rotimi Obajimi has escaped from captivity and returned to his home church.
"We were so amazed to see him because we have been praying earnestly for a long time trusting Jesus that He would surely come back, but lo and behold he was brought to our headquarters in Maiduguri by the military," a pastor at the Redeemed Church in Maiduguri told Saharh Reporters.
Obajimi, pastored a church in the Borno/Yobe province, was kidnapped by Islamic militants on Jan. 6. He was held in the Sambisa Forest for several months before being moved to another destination, and then once again brought back to Samisa.
However, he managed to escape his captors due to a heavy downpour which led to massive floods, destroying the camp.
Because of the rain, the armed captors left him and others, allowing him to escape. For days, he wandered the forest before arriving in a village where the military picked him up and brought him back to Maiduguri.
Boko Haram has used brutality and murder to spread terror among Nigerian villages for the past five years in an attempt to establish a caliphate, or Islamic rule, over the nation. Sobering statistics reveal that 2,053 people have been killed in 95 attacks in the first half of 2014.
Earlier this week the group beheaded seven villagers in the northeast town of Ngamdu in so called "revenge attacks" against Nigerians who have aided the country's military or have formed vigilante groups to fight against Boko Haram.
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, who resurfaced last week after rumors swirled that he had been killed, announced that he is implementing strict Sharia law on towns in Nigeria that have been captured.
"Nothing will kill me until my days are over. ... I'm still alive. Some people asked you if Shekau has two souls. No, I have one soul, by Allah," Shekau said in the video.
"We are running our caliphate, our Islamic caliphate. We follow the Quran. ... We now practice the injunctions of the Quran in the land of Allah," he added.
In April, the militants kidnapped over 200 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok, and many of them have still not returned home.
Although Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan remains under immense pressure to secure the girl's freedom, a rescue attempt is considered too dangerous at this time.
