One of two Catholic priests kidnapped in northern Nigeria last Friday has been found “brutally killed” by his abductors, local media reported Tuesday.
Father John Mark Cheitnum, the director of social communication for the Catholic Diocese of Kafanchan, was abducted by “terrorists” Friday evening along with Father Donatus Cleopas shortly after the two priests arrived at the parish rectory of Christ the King Catholic Church in Lere, the local government area of Kaduna State.
According to a statement issued by Father Emmanuel Uchechukwu Okolo, chancellor of the Kafanchan diocese, Father Cleopas managed to escape from his abductors, whereas the corpse of Father Cheitnum was found on Tuesday in a farm not far from where he was kidnapped.
It is with “a deep sense of sorrow and pains that the Bishop, Clergy, Religious and Laity of the Diocese of Kafanchan announce the gruesome murder of Very Rev. Fr. John Mark Cheitnum,” the statement reads.
“Fr. John Mark, who was abducted from the rectory of Christ the King Parish Yadin Garu, Lere LGA of Kaduna State, was brutally killed by his abductors on the same day of his abduction; Friday 15th July, 2022,” it states. “His corpse was later discovered already decomposing on Tuesday, 19 July, 2022.”
“Until his demise he was the CAN Chairman, Jama’a LGA, as well as the Coordinating Chairman of CAN, Southern Kaduna,” the diocese notes, adding that Cheitnum was also the pastor of St. James Parish Fori, in Kaduna State.
“As we solicit for prayers for the repose of our dear brother priest and God’s consolation on his immediate family, we wish to humbly call on all and sundry to refrain from taking the laws into their hands,” the diocese states, while also calling for a two-day mourning period for the peaceful repose of his soul.