2 Catholic Priests Kidnapped in Nigeria’s Kaduna State

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Nigeria
An Adara Christian woman prays while attending Sunday service at Ecwa Church, Kajuru, Kaduna State, Nigeria on April 14, 2019. |

A Catholic diocese in Nigeria’s Kaduna state has asked worshipers to pray for two of its priests who were kidnapped from a church presbytery, bringing the number of priests kidnapped in the country to 20 so far this year. here.

The priests, identified as Fr. John Mark Cheitnum and Fr. Denatus Cleopas of Kafanchan Diocese, were abducted on Friday from the rectory of Christ the King Catholic Church in the town of Lere in Kaduna State, Catholic News Agency reported.

“May Jesus, crucified on the Cross, hear our prayers and hasten the unconditional release of his priests and all other kidnapped people,” the father said. Emmanuel Uchechukwu Okolo, the chancellor of the diocese, was quoted as saying.

Three of the 20 Nigerian priests kidnapped this year have been killed. Catholic group Aid to the Church in Need says at least seven people have been abducted this month alone.

The Diocesan Catholic Priests Association of Nigeria has asked priests to observe a week of prayer and fasting for clergy who continue to serve in the country at the risk of their lives.

“Our duty is to lay before the altar of God the gratitude, cares, concerns and requests of the faithful and ours. We are defenders of life and peace,” the association said in a statement.

Last month, unidentified terrorists killed two Catholic priests in Kaduna and Edo, a month after two other priests were killed in two other districts of the West African country.

The two victims have been identified as Fr. Vitus Borogo, a priest serving in the Archdiocese of Kaduna, and Fr. Christopher Odia of the Diocese of Auchi.

In May, unidentified gunmen stormed a Catholic parish in northern Nigeria and abducted two priests, identified as Fr. Stephen Ojapa and Fr. Oliver Okpara of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto and two unidentified boys. identified from St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Gidan Maikambo area of ​​Kafur Local Government Area in Katsina State, Vatican News reported at the time.

In another incident the same month, radical Islamic militants affiliated with radical Fulani Islamic herders or the Islamic State terrorist group in West Africa Province killed at least eight Christians, including children of under 5, and injured several others in an attack in Borno State.

In a report released last year, the Anambra-based International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) estimated that around 10 million people had been uprooted in northern Nigeria, where extremist violence was the most serious, from July 2009 to July 2021.

The report adds that approximately 2,000 Christian schools were attacked during this period.

The atrocities included “massacres, murders, mutilations, tortures, mutilations, kidnappings, hostage-taking, rapes, desecration of girls, forced marriages, disappearances, extortion, forced conversions and the destruction or burning of homes and centers of sacred worship and learning”. Intercompany reported.

Intersociety said the mass violence resulted from the “spread of radical Islamism”.

The Nigerian government, led by President Muhammadu Buhari, who comes from a Fulani background, attributes violence in Middle Belt states to decades-old clashes between farmers and herders. However, Christian human rights activists have accused the government of neglecting religious elements and not doing enough to protect Nigerian citizens.

Many have raised concerns about what they perceive to be the government’s inaction to hold terrorists accountable for the growing number of killings and kidnappings, which some groups say have reached the level of genocide.

The ICC has identified Nigeria as one of its “Persecutors of the Year 2021”.

“Nigeria is one of the deadliest places on Earth for Christians, with 50,000 to 70,000 killed since 2000,” the ICC’s Persecutors of the Year report said.

Open Doors USA, which monitors the persecution in more than 60 countries, reported that at least 4,650 Christians were killed between October 1, 2020 and September 30, 2021. This is an increase from 3,530 the previous year. Moreover, more than 2,500 Christians were kidnapped, compared to 990 a year earlier.

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