The source shared a poster with the image of the “wife of Dr. Philip” who was murdered alongside Michael bearing the words: “Your sad and wasteful departure at the hands of mindless individuals will never be forgotten. We apologize that as a country we failed you, your family and community. But looking at you today, we are reminded that we cannot this destruction and carnage to continue. So, we pray, Oh God help us to act NOW, before the next Nigerians is brought down.”
The image of the murdered woman has the caption: “Wife of Dr. Philip, Kaduna-based Fr. Philip Adaga, whose wife and two children were abducted and the kidnappers are asking for N20m (US$54,800.00) to release the children after killing their mum.”
Michael and his twin Richard were born February 16, 2001 and baptized May 26, of the same year at the Holy Family Catholic Cathedral of Sokoto Diocese in the extreme northwest of Nigeria.
In 2018, Michael was admitted as a seminarian of Nigeria’s Sokoto diocese and proceeded, for his Spiritual year, to St. Paul Spiritual Year Seminary, Niger State in the central part of the country until June 2019.
Last October, he continued with his formation to the priesthood, joining the Good Shepherd Major Seminary in Kaduna. Michael and the three other seminarians abducted with him on January 8 were all first-year philosophy students.
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Since January 11, the abductors were reportedly making contacts with the family members of the four seminarians to discuss ransoms for their release, a source in Nigeria told ACI Africa January 12.
One of the four seminarians was freed Saturday, January 18. The kidnappers dumped him along Nigeria’s Kaduna-Abuja highway and was “helped by passersby”. He was admitted in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at St. Gerard’s Catholic Hospital in Kaduna where he has been receiving treatment.
On January 31, the Registrar of the Good Shepherd Major Seminary announced the release of two other seminarians and appealed, “Kindly continue to pray for the remaining one and all those who are still in the hands of Kidnappers.”
Announcing the murder of Michael by his abductors, Bishop Kukah of Sokoto said Michael “and the wife of a doctor were arbitrarily separated from the group and killed.”
“Michael Nnadi is Igbo-Biafran by origin. Chances are that his murder is not unconnected to the ethnic profiling and cleansing,” a source from Nigeria told ACI Africa February 5.
A source in Nigeria recently told ACI Africa that the abductions and selected murders are being perpetrated by “a state-funded movement called: The Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWAS).”
According to the source, MOJWAS has members “spread across West Africa – from central Mali, moving towards Nigeria, via Niger Republic with a strong alliance from some people and the Tillaberi region of Niger Republic. They are active in the Chad basin and joined Boko Haram and extend to the select and 3R groups in Central Africa Republic CAR.”
The agenda of MOJWAS, the source said, “is to conquer the rich river basin of the Benue valley for both economic and religious reasons.”
“Brothers and sisters let us rise and begin to talk,” the source told ACI Africa and added in reference to the Federal Government of Nigeria and the various States, “We must begin to engage this government at all levels now!”
Magdalene Kahiu contributed to this story
