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Priest kidnapping in Nigeria seen as part of attack on Christian ‘soft targets’

Priest kidnapping in Nigeria seen as part of attack on Christian ‘soft targets’

YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon – Police in Nigeria have arrested two persons suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of Father Thomas Oyode, rector of the Immaculate Conception Minor Seminary School in Auchi Diocese, located in Edo State in the embattled Central-Southern region of the country.

While presenting the suspects to the media on October 30, Edo State Police Commissioner Umoru Ozigi said the suspects assisted the police in tracking down their accomplices.

He called on the public to voluntarily provide any information that could lead to the arrest of criminals in a region where lawbreakers lurk.

Oyode was abducted from the seminary at around 7pm on Sunday evening, during evening prayers and blessings, according to a statement by the diocese’s Director of Communications, Father Peter Egielewa.

He said the kidnappers initially took two seminarians, but the rector asked the kidnappers to release the students and take him instead.

“The rector of the institution, Rev. Fr. Thomas Oyode was kidnapped and led into the bush. However, the Vice Rector and all seminarians have been secured and have been safely and temporarily transferred to a secure area until security measures around the seminary have been tightened. Unfortunately, there has been no communication with the kidnappers yet,” Egielewa said in a statement.

According to unconfirmed reports, the kidnappers are asking for a ransom of almost $122,000. CruxThe diocese’s attempts to obtain confirmation went unanswered.

The recent kidnapping highlights the growing threat to clerics and religious individuals in Nigeria, who are generally considered ‘soft targets’.

According to a report by the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law, known as ‘Intersociety’, more than 150,000 religiously motivated civilian deaths have been recorded in Nigeria since 2009.

The report, published on February 14, shows that around 14 million Christians have been uprooted and forced to flee their homes since 2009, and more than 800 Christian communities have been attacked.

This was stated by the director of Intersociety, Emeka Umeagbalassi Crux that targeting Catholic clergy and Christians is part of a larger plan to Islamize the country.

He accused the federal government of bias against Christians and described it as “a wing of Fulani killers,” a reference to a largely Muslim ethnic group widely spread across West Africa, including Nigeria.

“There are many massacres, kidnappings and disappearances in the country, and the security forces are complicit in these crimes,” Emeka said.

Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Abuja said security forces have been “disgraced” by the continued killings and kidnappings of Christians.

“Our country is still plagued by increasing insecurity. Boko Haram insurgents, herdsmen militias, bandits, kidnappers and the so-called ‘unknown gunmen’ continue to spread terror across several regions,” Kaigama said. Crux.

He roundly accused the Federal Government of failing to protect the people, stating that it has lost the ability to bring to justice the perpetrators of violence who are now terrorizing the people in different parts of the country at will. to keep control.

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, ‘HURIWA’, has urged the Federal Government to take stronger action against attacks on priests, pastors and moderate Muslims who are increasingly falling prey to kidnappers, terrorists, bandits and Fulani herdsmen.

Last year, the outspoken Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Mathew Hassan Kukah, said his diocese had spent more than $37,200 to secure the release of pastoral officers.

“There are genuine fears that these kidnappings amount to targeted persecution of the Christian faith, but the financial motive appears to overshadow these concerns,” HURIWA said in a report last year.

The report states that the government’s failure to address the issue of kidnappings and killings of priests has encouraged other criminals to commit similar acts.

Franklyne Ogbunwezeh, a senior researcher for Sub-Saharan Africa at Christian Solidarity International, notes that while criminal gangs are motivated by money to kidnap clerics, jihadist elements have a different motive: establishing an Islamic caliphate by expelling Christians from their communities. especially in the Middle Belt of Nigeria.

“They kidnap and kill Christian leaders who have high status in their communities, sometimes even killing them after a ransom has been paid. This is to detach the community from its center, making it easier to destroy those Christian communities,” he said.