Benin City, 05 July, 2022 / 9:30 pm (ACI Africa).
An Italian Catholic Priest ministering in Benin City Archdiocese in Nigeria is “responding to treatment” after he suffered injuries from his captors, the Chancellor of the Nigerian Archdiocese has said.
In a Monday, July 4 statement, Fr. Michael Oyanoafoh reports about the July 3 ordeal of Fr. Luigi Brenna who has been “taken to another hospital to continue treatment” after having been initially “rushed” to Igbinedion University Teaching Hospital in Benin City.
The member of the Clerics Regular of Somasca (CRS - Somascan Fathers) was watching boys play football on the ground in front of the Somascan Usen community in Ovia South West Local Government Area of Nigeria’s Edo State when “some suspected herdsmen stormed the venue shooting sporadically”, Fr. Oyanoafoh has reported.
“The boys playing football ran away in great fear and trembling and they (suspected herdsmen) captured Fr. Brenna, CRS before he could run into his apartment,” the Archdiocesan Chancellor says in his statement.
The attackers beat up Fr. Brenna using “machetes on his head and body and dragged him away,” the official of Benin City Archdiocese further recounts the ordeal of the 64-year-old Italian Priest.
