News

Nigeria: Four Catholic Priests Abducted at Gunpoint

November 12, 2018

Both the Islamic militant group Boko Haram and Muslim Fulani herdsmen are targeting the Christians of Nigeria (among whom is a small number of Orthodox Christians) with increasingly regularity, audacity, and ferocity. When these groups kidnap Christians, they are generally hoping to gain a large ransom in exchange for their release; if they don’t get it, then they enslave or even murder their victims. Please pray that these four Catholic priests be rescued unharmed.

“Four Catholic Priest Abducted at Gunpoint in Nigeria,” International Christian Concern, November 10, 2018:

11/10/2018 Nigeria (International Christian Concern) – Earlier this week, four Roman Catholic priests were kidnapped by armed gunmen in the Delta State of Nigeria.

Nigerian officials are condemning the kidnapping and Benue State Gov. Samuel Ortom said that the abduction was “barbaric, dehumanizing, and shameful.”

The four clergy men abducted were Rev Fr. Victor Adigboluja of the Ijebu Ode Diocese; Anthony Otegbola, Abeokuta Diocese; Joseph Ediae, Benin Archdiocese; and Emmanuel Obadjere, Warri Diocese.

The four priest were coming home from a class and heading to an event when the gunmen reportedly abused them, spraying their vehicles with bullets, and kidnapping the four men….

This kidnapping occurred less than three weeks after five Nigerian Catholic nuns were kidnapped in the Delta state as well. The Catholic nuns were released two weeks later their abduction.