In the southern Nigerian state of Edo, two Catholic priests have been kidnapped by gunmen. Only a week had passed when a Catholic priest from the state named Christopher Odia was assassinated in the state after being kidnapped by gunmen.
In the Esan South East Local Government Area of Edo State, two priests, Udo Peter of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Uromi and Philemon Oboh of St. Joseph Retreat Center in Ugboha, were kidnapped on Saturday.
In a statement on Sunday, the police spokesperson in Edo, Chidi Nwabuzor, confirmed the event.
The priests, according to Nwabuzor, were attacked and kidnapped along the Benin-Auchi Expressway.
He said that Abutu Yaro, the state’s commissioner of police, had sent agents to the region “to carry out aggressive and well-coordinated manhunt” for the abductors and to free the priests.
Odia, the state’s murdered Catholic priest, served as both the pastor of St. Michael Catholic Church in Ikabigbo’s Etsako West Local Government Area and the headmaster of St. Philip Catholic Secondary School in Jattu.
On June 27, as he left for mass, he was kidnapped at his rectory and eventually slain.
Another Catholic priest, Vitus Borogo, had also been murdered by gunmen on his farm in Kaduna, northwest Nigeria.
Today, kidnapping for ransom is a common crime in many Nigerian cities. Easy targets include politicians, businesspeople, clerics, and anyone with a high net worth, even young children.
Along the Enugu-Port Harcourt Expressway in Abia State, the Methodist Prelate Samuel Kanu-Uche and the Methodist Bishop of Owerri were recently kidnapped.
Before the clerics were freed, churchgoers reportedly paid a ransom of N100 million.
Meanwhile, in Northcentral Nigeria, unknown assailants invaded Agwan Baraya village in Mangu local government of Plateau state, and shot the village head.
It was gathered that the village head was rushed to a nearby hospital in the council area, his son, who was identified as Chamsan, who was also shot by the gunmen during the attack died on the spot.
Sources disclose that after the shooting, the victims, the gunmen abducted the wife of the village head and fled into the bush.