“All our property, my books, everything is gone,” Nigerian Cleric on Torched Parish House

“We do not know exactly what happened. All we have now are speculations. We suspect external interference. It seems like somebody just wants to sabotage whatever efforts we have right now for pastoral work,” he said and added, “There was no electricity and all equipment was put off.”

“The house is completely burnt, we cannot reconstruct it. We can only build a new house. There is already a new design for the house,” the Parish Priest of St. Mary’s Parish told ACI Africa, adding that the team coordinating the construction is working on the Bill of Quantities.

In the meantime, Fr. Augustine said, the immediate undertaking is the modification of the Parish offices “into a temporary residence where we could stay as we carry out our pastoral duties.”

“I’m still at the Pastoral Centre. They gave me a room to stay for a while. I drive down to the Parish, do my work and come back. It’s about 20-minutes’ drive,” he said.

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The member of the Clergy of Nigeria’s Zaria Diocese is seeking assistance toward “a temporary residence” at the Parish.

“I’m appealing to as many people as possible who can reach out to us with whatever they can afford so that we put up a temporary residence so that we can be on the ground to carry out our pastoral work,” Fr. Augustine appealed.

The modification of the offices to a temporary residence is estimated to cost 1.5 million naira (US$.3,940.00), Fr. Augustine told ACI Africa and added, “It is not just modification but we also have to start furnishing the house and buying items. We do not have anything right now.”

The burning down of the Parish House came slightly a week after St. Augustine Kutura in Kajuru Local area in the neighboring Archdiocese of Kaduna was torched by bandits who also killed three people and kidnapped others.

“Keep us in your prayers,” Fr. Bivang Thaddeus, the Priest-in-Charge of St. Michael’s Pastoral Area where the razed church belongs told ACI Africa, adding that he also lost a church leader in the February 27 incident.