Enugu, 31 October, 2019 / 12:54 am (ACI Africa).
A couple of days since unknown gunmen “whisked away” Nigerian Fr. Arinze Madu, a diocesan Catholic priest serving at Nigeria’s Queen of Apostles Spiritual Year Seminary, Enugu diocese, there are concerns about the priest’s whereabouts as kidnappings targeting Church leaders seem to multiply in Africa’s most populous country, a source in Enugu diocese has told ACI Africa.
“Fr Madu was accosted by a band of gunmen as he was driving out of the seminary gate on Monday evening,” the Director of Communications in Nigeria’s Enugu diocese, Fr. Benjamin Achi told ACI Africa Wednesday, October 30 in reference to the October 28 occurrence outside the gate of the Queen of Apostles Spiritual Year Seminary.
“The priest upon sighting the men had wanted to make a quick U-turn back into the seminary but his car tyres incidentally got stuck in a ditch (and) the gunmen capitalized on that and whisked him away,” Fr. Achi narrated.
Since then, there are concerns about the whereabouts of the kidnapped Nigerian cleric.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria (CBCN) have confirmed the abduction of Fr. Madu on their Facebook page where the Prelates quote the Public Relations officer of Enugu State police, Ebere Amaraizu as saying, “It was gathered that the priest was allegedly abducted on October 28 at about 5.50pm near the gate of the seminary located at Imezi Owa as he was driving out of the seminary premises after suspected hoodlums had allegedly fired sporadically.”
