Four in ten Nigerian priests in danger of abduction

Two priests in Nigeria were kidnapped last week in the latest wave of clergy abductions. 

Fr Mikah Suleiman, parish priest of St Raymond Damba Church in the Damba area of Gasau, capital of Nigeria’s north-western Zamfara state, was kidnapped in the early hours of 22 June.

In a statement released shortly after the incident, the chancellor of the Diocese of Sokoto, Fr Nuhu Ilya called on Christians to “earnestly pray for his quick and safe release.”

“We equally commend him to the powerful intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, mother of priests, for his speedy release from the hands of his abductors,” he said.

Fr Suleiman’s abduction came six days after the kidnapping of Fr Christian Ike of St Matthew’s Church, Ajalli, in the south-eastern Anambra state. On 9 June, Fr Gabriel Ukeh of St Thomas Church in Kaduna state, in north-west Nigeria, was abducted.

Emeka Umeagbalasi, a leading Nigerian criminologist, said that at least 10 priests have been kidnapped in Nigeria in 2024. “Two have been killed,” he told The Tablet, adding that the numbers kidnapped or killed could be higher, because many crimes against priests got unrecorded.

“It’s got to a point where out of ten [priests] in Nigeria, four are at risk of being kidnapped,” he said, and added that “out of that four, one or two are at high risk of being killed in captivity”.

Umeagbalasi is the board chair of the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), a Catholic-inspired NGO.

Besides Catholic priests, religious leaders and Christians from other denominations are also targeted. Emeka estimated that nearly 2,000 Christians may have been killed in Nigeria this year alone. He said the number of Christians abducted this year was nearing 3,000.

“There are two major motives behind the abduction of priests in Nigeria. One is a radical religious motive. The other one is money,” Emeka explained.

“Those who kidnap [priests] in the north are jihadists who are in furtherance of their quest to Islamise Nigeria,” he said. “Those who kidnap priests in the eastern part of the country are out for ransom payments.” He added that Fulani herdsmen have also been guilty of kidnaping priests, with cover from the Nigerian government.

He accused the government of doing nothing to protect Christians, to the point where Nigerian Christians are now some of the worst persecuted in the world. “Government has totally lost it,” Emeka said.

He alleged that the security forces in Nigeria were “Islamic-inspired”.

“They are here to protect a segment of the citizens and the hideous crimes being perpetuated by that particular segment of the Nigerian population,” he said, saying Nigeria was “the African centre of Islamic jihadism or radical radicalism and it is because state power is behind it”.

Stay updated — add us as a preferred news source on Google: