Nigerian Church prays for kidnapped priest

The horror in Nigeria for the discomfort of persecuted Christians does not stop. Just three weeks after the priest Joseph Igweagu was kidnapped after celebrating a funeral, as we already reported on the SIT website, another religious, Abraham Kunat, has just been captured by armed men in Kaduna, in the north of the country.

As reported by Agenzia Fides, the kidnapping took place during the early hours of last Tuesday, when an armed group of about 15 men broke into the “oil village”, near the Kaduna refinery, to loot houses and establishments. As they fled, the assailants took nine hostages, including Father Kunat.

The Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Kaduna, Father Christian Okewu Emmanuel, has told local media that Father Kunat is a parish priest at St. Bernard Church, Idon Gida, in the Kachia local government. The chancellor has also pointed out that, due to the insecurity situation in the area, the kidnapped priest lived in the parish of San Mulumba but this was not enough to guarantee his safety.

And it is that the situation of the persecuted Christians and even more that of the religious is more dangerous every day since these religious have become a terrorist target due to the religious symbolism they project. The president of the branch of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Kaduna, Joseph Hayeb, has confirmed the kidnapping of the priest and has stated that he lives “a very sad situation because many things are happening in the state that are not reported”. In the same way, he has demanded greater forcefulness and effectiveness in terms of protecting the population from terrorism. It is not the first time that the oil village has been attacked. In fact, it is a frequent target of bandits and terrorists in which the residents, workers and employees of the refinery have been requesting for years to include a permanent military post as a preventive measure.