A Nigerian Catholic priest abducted last week was found murdered on Tuesday while his colleague managed to escape from his captors in the northern state of Kaduna, the local diocese said.
Fathers John Mark Cheitnum and Donatus Cleophas were seized in the town of Lere when attending a parish function at Christ the King Catholic Church, Yadin Garu, last Friday.
On Tuesday, the body of Cheitnum was found, the Kafanchan diocese said in a statement, adding that he was “brutally killed on the same day of his abduction.” His burial was on Thursday.
No one has claimed responsibility for the abduction.
About a dozen priests have been kidnapped this year across Nigeria by gunmen who demanded ransom payments. Nigerian security forces, who were stretched fighting an Islamist insurgency in the northeast, often failed to stop the attacks.
Two Nigerian Catholic priests have been abducted in Nigeria’s northern state of Kaduna, the local diocese said, nearly two weeks after another priest was taken from his parish in the same state.
Fathers John Mark Cheitnum and Donatus Cleopas were abducted in the town of Lere after they arrived for a parish function at Christ the King Catholic Church, Yadin Garu, the diocese said.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the abduction.
Kidnappers abducted another priest from his rectory in Kaduna state earlier this month while parishioners were waiting for him to conduct the morning mass, the local diocese said.
Armed gangs were rife across Nigeria’s northwest where they robbed or kidnapped for ransom, and violence has been increasing. Stretched security forces failed to stop the attacks.
A Nigerian Catholic priest was abducted from his rectory in the town of Zambina in the northern state of Kaduna in the early hours of Monday, the local Catholic diocese said on Monday.
It said parishioners went to look for Father Emmanuel Silas after waiting in vain for him to conduct the morning mass.
It was not clear who carried out the abduction.
Armed gangs were rife across Nigeria’s northwest where they robbed or kidnapped for ransom, and violence has been increasing, where thinly stretched security forces often failed to stop the attacks. -Reuters
