“Pastors and priests are an organic, local, natural voice of leadership in a civil rights movement that is grounded in the gospel of the freedom of God’s children,” Mahanna explained.
There are also more pragmatic and monetary reasons at play, others say.
Security expert David Otto, director of the Geneva Center for Strategic and Security Studies in Africa, based in Geneva, Switzerland, said the consensus among security experts in his group is that the Catholic Church is being targeted because she paid the large ransoms the terrorists demanded, which can reach $200,000 or more.
“That’s the simple reason, because bandits are all about the money,” Otto said.
Some priests are fired during the day – as happened in the case of Father Emmanuel Silas, who was abducted from his residence before daybreak on July 4, according to a notice from the Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Kafanchan.
Bishop Matthew Ndagoso of Kaduna points to another factor contributing to attacks on priests: incompetent law enforcement. Ndagoso and Arogundade of Ondo Diocese have openly criticized Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari and his security agencies for not doing enough to stop the wave of violence targeting Christians in the country.
“The president is the commander-in-chief, and he has people working under him, and yet no one has been brought to account for the atrocities going on,” Ndagoso said.
“People are not held accountable for their failures, despite huge sums of money being approved for security,” he said.
Ndagoso spoke with CNA on the day he celebrated the funeral of Father Vitus Borogo. The 50-year-old priest, who was a Catholic chaplain at Kaduna State Polytechnic, was shot and killed at a prison farm in Kujama, along the Kaduna-Kachia road, on June 25, according to the archdiocese. from Kaduna.
Borogo’s younger brother was abducted the same day and not released.
“Those with the responsibility of securing our country must tell us why they have failed,” the Archbishop said.
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“So many of my parishioners have been kidnapped that I can’t count. So much and every day,” he said.
Some priests were rescued by security teams. Father Peter Udo and Father Philemon Oboh, both of Uromi Diocese, were abducted on July 2 in Edo, 400 miles south of Kaduna, then snatch kidnappers in the early hours of July 6 and brought to the Edo State Government Headquarters, where they were received by the Acting Governor, Philip Shaibu.
On July 11, the Nigerian Association of Diocesan Catholic Priests issued a statement on the attacks, saying, “it is truly sad that as part of their normal pastoral activities, priests have become an endangered species.”
“Attempts have been made at various levels to cry out to the government,” the association said, “but as the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria has already observed, ‘it is clear to the nation that [the Government] failed in [its] primary duty to protect the lives of Nigerian citizens.
In the statement, the association of priests asked priests to observe a week of prayer, fasting, Eucharistic adoration and recitation of the Rosary to help them in their ministry despite the dangerous security situation, ACN reported.
“We humbly call on all priests to take it very seriously without neglecting other related regulations and recommendations in their various dioceses,” the association said.
