Unidentified gunmen have kidnapped Father Joseph Igweagu of the Catholic Archdiocese of Onitsha, in southern Nigeria, local media reported Monday.
The Onitsha Archdiocese has released a statement signed by the Archdiocesan Chancellor, Father Prudentius Emeja Aroh, announcing the abduction of the priest.
“It is with shock but strong faith in the love and protection of God that we announce to the priests, religious, lay faithful of Onitsha Archdiocese and all men and women of goodwill, the abduction of our priest, Rev. Fr. Joseph Igweagu, the Parish Priest of St. Joseph’s Parish, Abata, Nsugbe,” reads the statement, bearing the title “An Urgent Call for Sincere Prayer.”
Father Igweagu was abducted in the evening of Wednesday, October 12, while returning home after celebrating a funeral vigil Mass at Umunnachi in Njikoka Council area of Anambra state, the statement says.
Statement by the Archdiocese of Onitsha on the kidnapping of its priest, Father Joseph Igweagu.
“We solicit for sincere prayers for his unconditional release from the hands of his abductors,” it continues, adding that the archdiocese itself is doing “everything possible to secure his freedom.”
“While we pray for the conversion of his abductors, we call on our Mother Mary, the Undoer of knots, to intercede on his behalf so that he will be quickly released unhurt,” the statement concludes.
The archdiocese has not made public whether the priest’s abductors have demanded ransom for his release.
In its 2021 Watch List, the Christian persecution watchdog group Open Doors revealed that during the preceding year Nigeria had had more Christians killed for their faith than any other nation in the world.
On that list, Nigeria figured among the top ten countries where Christians face the most extreme and violent persecution, with Open Doors announcing that “more Christians are murdered for their faith in Nigeria than in any other country.”
During 2021, some 4,650 Christians were slain there for being believers in Jesus — more than one every two hours, Open Doors president David Curry noted in a 2022 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.
In December 2020, the U.S. State Department designated Nigeria as a country of particular concern for its egregious violations of religious freedom, but the Biden administration inexplicably reversed that decision in 2021 despite ever-increasing violence against Christians in the country.
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