It is indeed a gloomy and sad moment for the people of Affa Community, Udi local government area of Enugu state following the abduction of some persons in the community on Sunday, August 2.
Gunmen reportedly invaded St. Joseph Catholic Church, Inoyi, in Affa Community, Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State, kidnapping a seminarian and at least one worshipper during a church service on Sunday morning.
The incident was firstt disclosed in a Facebook post by popular social media influencer, Sen Chijinkem Ugwuanyi.
He narrated how the attackers stormed the church and abducted a seminarian who had come to celebrate Mass, a catechist and another worshipper.
Sen. Ugwuanyi said the kidnappers later released the catechist but took the seminarian and the other victim into captivity.
He explained that youths of the community have gone into bush in search of the victims.
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“The whole village is thrown into frenzy as the search continues,” he wrote, while calling on the government to intensify efforts to tackle rising insecurity in the area.
In a separate Facebook post, a resident of the community shared a video purportedly from the scene, alleging that kidnappers attacked St. Joseph Catholic Church, Inoyi, Affa, appealing to the Enugu State Government to intervene.
In the second video, the user explained that “there has been heavy down pour in our community since early morning. As we were preparing for early morning Mass this morning some of our church members who are living up there, ran to us here.
“They came here, telling us that some people welding guns have kidnapped a visiting seminarian, our catechist and some others.
“We alerted the police who came and asked us where they followed which we told them.
“When we came out to pursue them, we saw that they were about seven, welding AK-47.
“We are appealing to the Enugu state government to respond fast and rescue them from these kidnappers.”
The incident is coming few days after a seminarian was also reportedly kidnapped in Otukpo Catholic Diocese, Benue state.
Recall that gun men on Saturday, August 1 abducted a seminarian, Kelvin Ochai, after attacking the residence of the Catholic Bishop of Otukpo in Otukpo Local Government Area of Benue state.
The attack occurred on Thursday at the bishop’s residence in the Asa III area of Otukpo.
The Chancellor of the Catholic Diocese of Otukpo, Joseph Itodo, confirmed the incident in a statement issued on Friday.
Mr Itodo said the Catholic Bishop of Otukpo Diocese, Michael Apochi, expressed his sadness over the incident while calling on Christians and members of the public to pray for the victim’s safe return.
“Bishop Michael Apochi, who is deeply saddened by this unfortunate development, has called on all Christ’s Faithful in the Catholic Diocese of Otukpo and all people of goodwill to earnestly pray for the seminarian’s quick and safe release,” the statement said.
“We commit our brother and all those in the kidnappers’ den throughout the country to the powerful intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary for their speedy and safe release from the hands of their abductors.”
The diocese also prayed for the release of other Nigerians being held by kidnappers and other criminal groups across the country.
However, the Benue State Police Command said it had yet to establish that the seminarian was kidnapped.
The Police Public Relations Officer, Peter Aondongu, said the command was treating the incident as a missing person case pending the outcome of ongoing investigations.
“The report in our possession is that the seminarian went out to take his bath, and the place where he went is different from where he resides. After some time, he could no longer be found. For now, it is still a case of a missing person,” Mr Aondongu said.
The police spokesperson added that reports of an earlier attempted abduction at the residence about two weeks ago were never formally reported to the command.
“The rumour was that about two weeks ago, some persons came to the house and attempted to abduct the seminarian, but that was never officially reported to us. It was only after this incident that we started hearing about it,” he said.
Mr Aondongu said investigations were ongoing to determine the circumstances surrounding the seminarian’s disappearance.
However, as of the time of filing this report, the Enugu State Police Command had not issued an official statement on the incident.
The Police Public Relations Officer PPRO, of the state command, Daniel Ndukwe couldn’t pick up his phone when our reporter called him several times.
