Bandits abduct Catholic priest in Kaduna

Bandits have abducted a Catholic priest in the Kauru Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Reverend Father Ibrahim Amos.

The priest was kidnapped on Thursday from his residence at Saint Gerald’s Quasi Parish, Kurmin Risga community in the Kauru Local Government Area.

The police authorities in Kaduna state have yet to confirm the incident, but the Chancellor of the Catholic Diocese of  Kafanchan, Revd. Fr. Jacob Shanet, confirmed the abduction of his colleague in a statement he issued on Thursday.

He described the kidnap of yet another priest in the diocese as a deeply saddening one.

Shanet, however, called for prayers for the safe return of the abducted priest, just as he urged the public to remain calm and avoid taking the law into their own hands.

He further said that every legitimate and available means will be deployed to ensure that the abducted priest returns unharmed and in good health.

The latest abduction comes less than two months after another Catholic priest from Kafanchan Catholic Diocese, Revd. Fr. Slyvester Okechukwu, was abducted and later killed by his abductors in Kaura local government area.

Kaduna is one of several states in northwestern and central Nigeria terrorised by criminal gangs — called bandits by locals — who raid villages and kill and abduct residents across the country’s rural hinterlands, where government presence, infrastructure and security has long been scarce.

Several bandit gangs, who maintain camps in a huge forest straddling Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger states, have been notorious for mass kidnappings in schools.

In January, 21 government militiamen were killed in an ambush by bandits in neighbouring Katsina State while returning from a condolence visit to the family of their deceased colleague in the Safana district, according to the police.

In 2023, Katsina State established the Katsina Community Watch Corps (KCWC), comprising around 2,000 militia members to assist the military and police in fighting bandits.

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