One of the two Catholic priests kidnapped on July 15 in Kafanchan has been killed while the other escaped from his captors, the Catholic Church announced on Tuesday.
PREMIUM TIMES had reported how the priests, Donatus Suleiman and John Cheitnum, were kidnapped on July 15 at the rectory of Christ the King Catholic Church, Yadin Garu in Lere Local Government Area of Kaduna State after they arrived there on an assignment.
In a statement on Tuesday by the counsellor of the Catholic Diocese of Kafanchan, Emmanuel Okolo, the church said Mr Suleiman escaped his captors and has reunited with the church, but added that: “it is with 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 added that Mr Cheitnum was murdered on the day he was kidnapped and his corpse was later discovered almost decomposing on Tuesday.
Mr Okolo also called on Catholics to pray for the family of the deceased and called on the general public to refrain from taking the law into their hands.
