Nigeria’s Auchi Catholic Diocese Appeals for Prayers After Priest, Seminarian Abducted from Parish Rectory

He requests “all people of goodwill to join the faithful of the Diocese in prayers so that the abductors release Fr. Ekweli unharmed.”

In the March 4 statement, Fr. Egielewa shares the reaction of the Local Ordinary of Auchi Diocese, Bishop Gabriel Ghiakhomo Dunia regarding the upsurge of kidnappings in his Episcopal See.

“The Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Auch expresses sadness at the frequency at which Priests in his Diocese are attacked and kidnapped and that the once peaceful Edo North of the State, which houses the Diocese of Auchi, has become a field of the absurd where kidnappers come in at will and at regular intervals and kidnap people for ransom,” the Catholic Priest says.

He laments that the Nigerian Diocese “has become a business centre for kidnappers”, and calls on the Government of the West African nation “to address these persistent security challenges in Edo North and other parts of Edo State.”

Fr. Egielewa further laments, “The Catholic Diocese of Auchi, inaugurated on 22nd February 2003, only recently celebrated the twenty-second anniversary of its inauguration, but in the last 5 years, over 8 of her Priests have been kidnapped, with one brutally murdered in 2022.”

The latest abduction of Fr. Ekweli and the major Seminarian follows a series of other kidnappings that have targeted Catholic Priests in Africa’s most populous nation.

On February 6, Fr. Cornelius Manzak Damulak, a member of the Clergy of the Catholic Diocese of Shendam and student at Veritas University Abuja in Nigeria was abducted and later escaped from captivity. 

Later, on February 19, Fr. Moses Gyang Jah of St. Mary Maijuju Parish of Shendam Diocese was abducted alongside his niece and the Parish Council Chairman, Mr. Nyam Ajiji. The Parish Council Chairman was reportedly killed. Fr. Jah and his niece are yet to be freed.

Most recently, on February 22, Fr. Matthew David Dutsemi and Fr. Abraham Saummam were abducted from the Catholic Diocese of Yola. They are yet to be released.

Nigeria has been experiencing insecurity since 2009 when Boko Haram insurgency began with the aim of turning the country into an Islamic state.

Since then, the group, one of the largest Islamist groups in Africa, has been orchestrating indiscriminate terrorist attacks on various targets, including religious and political groups as well as civilians.

The insecurity situation in the country has further been complicated by the involvement of the predominantly Muslim Fulani herdsmen, also referred to as the Fulani Militia.