CV NEWS FEED // According to the latest reports from Truth Nigeria, another Catholic priest in southeastern Nigeria has been kidnapped, and a manhunt for his abductors is underway.
“With sadness, we write to inform the general public of the kidnap of one of our priests,” the Archdiocese of Onitsha stated in a press release on May 16. According to the release, unidentified gunmen abducted Rev. Fr. Basil Gbuzo of the Onitsha Archdiocese at around 8 a.m. May 15, in the southeastern Anambra state.
According to the Daily Post, local police also said in a statement that a manhunt has been launched for Gbuzo’s priest’s abductors, and for the possible rescue of the priest:
The Command is already working with some eyewitnesses to the incident in the ongoing operation
Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police, CP Nnaghe Obono Itam, while addressing the Catholic priests, allayed their fears and assured them that the Command would do everything to rescue the priest unhurt and arrest the abductors.
Fr. Gbuzo is a priest at Holy Trinity Catholic Parish in the town of Ogidi, where his parishioners regard him as “a real man of God,” who has “made a lasting impact on the lives of many people in Onitsha,” according to Truth Nigeria.
The Vatican’s Dicastery for Evangelization sent a message to bishops in Nigeria towards the end of April, expressing solidarity with Nigerian Christians who have suffered on account of the country’s kidnapping crisis.
“In these trying times, this Dicastery offers its deepest and heartfelt solidarity to the Nigerian people, who are grappling with a crisis that is expanding in scope and intensifying in proportion,” wrote Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, Pro-Prefect for the Section for the First Evangelization and the new Particular Churches of the Dicastery, in the statement.
As CatholicVote previously reported, the targeted kidnapping of Christians in Nigeria has been on the rise. More than 3,964 people have been abducted since May 2023.
