A seminarian has been killed after extremists torched a presbytery in Kafanchan Diocese in Kaduna State.
The incident took place about 8pm on September 7 when Fulani bandits attacked and set fire to the rectory of St Raphael’s parish in Fadan Kamantan, Kaduna State.
According to Bishop Julius Kundi of Kafanchan, parish priest Father Emmanuel Okolo and the assistant priest were able to escape the fire, but seminarian, Na’aman Danlami died in the attack.
He was only 25.
“The attackers were aiming to kidnap the parish priest. When they failed in their attempt to enter the father’s house, they set it on fire. The two priests were able to escape but, terribly, the seminarian was burned inside.
“The assault lasted more than an hour, but there was no reaction or support from the military forces. A kilometre away there is a checkpoint, but there was a total absence of reaction,” Kundi narrated.
“It’s a terrible loss. We recovered the body of Na’aman Danlami this morning and took it to the morgue.
“This seminarian is the second member we have lost in the diocese at the hands of terrorist attacks by Fulani bandits.
“Last year Father John Mark Cheitnum, director of communications of the Diocese of Kafanchan, was kidnapped and brutally murdered,” he added.
Another seminarian, Ezequiel Nuhu, was abducted in Kaduna yesterday, along with his father.
He was studying for the priesthood in Abuja but had gone to Southern Kaduna to holiday with his family.
The Church in Nigeria has suffered from ongoing attacks against members of the clergy.
In 2022 four priests were killed in the country and 28 were kidnapped, and this year, 2023, the number of clerics kidnapped has already reached fourteen.
ACN is calling for prayers for the repose of the soul of Na’aman Danlami and for the quick release of Ezekiel Nuhu.
So far this year, 13 clergymen have been taken captive in Nigeria and later freed, but three priests kidnapped in previous years are still missing and two others were murdered, according to official data obtained by ACN.
Between January 2021 and June 2022, more than 7,600 Nigerian Christians were killed and 5,200 kidnapped, according to the findings of ACN’s 2022 Persecuted and Forgotten.
In 2022, Nigeria ranked sixth in the Global Terrorism Index and was placed 143rd out of 163 countries in the Global Peace Index.
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