Kidnapping of priests in Nigeria seen as part of attack on Christian ‘soft targets’

YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon – Police in Nigeria have arrested two people suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of Father Thomas Oyode, rector of the Immaculate Conception Minor Seminary in the diocese of Auchi, located in Edo State in the conflict-ridden Central-South region of the country.

Presenting the suspects to the media on October 30, the Edo State Commissioner of Police, Umoru Ozigi, said the suspects were assisting the police in tracking down their accomplices.

He called on the population to voluntarily provide any information that could lead to the arrest of criminals in the region where they are breaking the law.

According to a statement by the diocese’s director of communications, Father Peter Egielewa, Oyode was abducted on Sunday evening at the seminary at around 7 p.m., during the evening prayers and blessing.

He said the kidnappers initially took two seminarians, but the rector asked the kidnappers to release the students and take him instead.

“The rector of the facility, Fr. Thomas Oyode was abducted and taken to the bush. However, the Vice-Rector and all seminarians have been accounted for, are safe and temporarily relocated to a secure location until security measures around the seminary are tightened. Unfortunately, no contact has been made with the kidnappers yet,” Egielewa said in a statement.

Unconfirmed reports say the kidnappers are demanding a ransom of almost $122,000. PointAttempts to obtain confirmation from the diocese have gone unanswered.

The recent kidnapping highlights the growing threat to clerics and religious figures in Nigeria, usually considered “soft targets.”

According to a report by the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law, known as Intersociety, there have been more than 150,000 religiously motivated civilian deaths in Nigeria since 2009.

A report released on February 14 found that since 2009, approximately 14 million Christians have been displaced and forced from their homes, and more than 800 Christian communities have been attacked.

– said Intersociety director Emeka Umeagbalassi Point that the attack on Catholic clergy and Christians is part of a larger plan to Islamize the country.

He accused the federal government of bias against Christians and described it as a “Fulani killer wing,” a reference to the majority-Muslim ethnic group widely scattered across West Africa, including Nigeria.

“There are many massacres, kidnappings and disappearances in the country and security agencies are complicit in these crimes,” Emeka said.

Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Abuja said security agencies “have been shamed” by the continued killing and kidnapping of Christians.

“Our nation continues to grapple with growing uncertainty. Boko Haram insurgents, herdsmen militias, bandits, kidnappers and so-called ‘unknown bandits’ continue to spread terror in various regions,” Kaigama said Point.

He bluntly accused the federal government of failing to protect citizens, stating that it had lost the ability to control perpetrators of violence who now terrorize people at will in various parts of the country.

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has urged the federal government to take decisive action against attacks on priests, pastors and moderate Muslims who are increasingly falling prey to kidnappers, terrorists, bandits and Fulani herdsmen.

Last year, the outspoken Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Mathew Hassan Kukah, said his diocese had spent over $37,200 to release pastoral agents.

“There are genuine concerns that these abductions constitute targeted persecution of the Christian faith, but the financial motive appears to overshadow these concerns,” HURIWA said in a report last year.

It said the government’s failure to address the problem of priest abductions and murders had emboldened other criminals to commit similar acts.

Franklyne Ogbunwezeh, senior sub-Saharan Africa researcher at Christian Solidarity International, notes that while criminal gangs may be motivated by money to kidnap clerics, jihadist elements have a different motive: establishing an Islamic caliphate by uprooting Christians from their communities, especially in the Middle East belt of Nigeria.

“They kidnap and murder Christian leaders who have high positions in their communities, sometimes even killing them after paying a ransom. This is intended to detach the community from its center, which will facilitate the destruction of Christian communities,” he said.