Johnstone Kpilaakaa On Thursday evening, some terrorists abducted two Catholic priests— Frs Kenneth Kanwa, CMF, and Jude Nwachukwu, CMF, at their residence at St. Vincent De Paul Parish, Fier in Pankshin, Plateau state.
Kanwa and Nwachukwu are both Claretian Missionaries serving in the Catholic Diocese of Pankshin.
Fr Ugochukwu Ugwoke, ISch, a Nigerian Catholic priest who first broke the news on X, urged everyone to pray for the safe and swift release of the abducted priests and others in Nigeria.
JoeyOffAir is yet to obtain a statement from the Catholic Diocese of Pankshin and the Claretian Missionaries regarding the abduction of their clergy.
Attacks on Christians in Nigeria have been on the increase in recent times. More than half of the 120 Christian clergy in the country that have been attacked between 2020 and 2021 are of the Catholic church; priests, nuns, and seminarians.
Fr Polycarb Lubo, the chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria describes these attacks as persecution against Christianity. “The priests are not rich themselves, so we don’t know why they have resulted in the killing and abduction of priests,” Fr Lubo told Al-Jazeera.
*This is a developing story. We will update it with more details.
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