Gunmen kill pastor, abduct 7 worshipers in Nigerian church attack
In a pre-dawn attack on a church vigil, unidentified gunmen stormed a parish of the Redeemed Christian Church of God in southwest Nigeria's Ogun State, leaving the pastor dead and abducting seven worshippers.
The incident occurred around midnight on Saturday at the Desires of Nations Parish in Abule-Ori, Obafemi Owode Local Government Area.
Police Public Relations Officer of the state command Omolola Odutola told The Punch that a fellow pastor identified the slain pastor as Pastor Kayode Oluwakemi, 56. He reportedly sustained bullet wounds to his chest and died at the scene.
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"He was in church with other pastors and church members, when some hoodlums numbering about seven invaded their church, attacked them with guns, cutlasses and other dangerous weapons with intent to Kidnap members," Odutola said.
Ogun State Social Orientation and Safety Corps Commander Soji Ganzallo said his officers rescued the seven congregants during a tense operation, Nigeria's Daily Post reported. Officers engaged the kidnappers in a fierce exchange of gunfire, leaving one of the assailants dead and several others critically injured, according to Ganzallo.
"The officers were charged to go after the suspects to rescue the victims unhurt and swung into action immediately," Ganzallo said in a statement. "The seven victims were rescued unhurt, while one of the kidnappers was killed, and many of the suspects sustained serious injury during a fire exchange."
The brutal attack has left the parish and the broader community in shock and mourning.
The commander added that a joint team, comprising the police and the So-Safe Corps, is already pursuing the remaining kidnappers, who managed to escape. He underscored that the objective was to capture them alive, to face justice for their brutal crimes.
Ganzallo also stated that the body of the slain kidnapper had been retrieved and deposited at a nearby morgue.
The search for the fugitives was ongoing.
In its latest International Religious Freedom Report, the U.S. State Department noted a spike in deadly violence impacting both Christians and Muslims in Nigeria. The NGO Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project reports there were 3,953 civilian deaths from violence across the country in 2022.
"There continued to be frequent violent incidents, particularly in the northern part of the country, affecting both Muslims and Christians, resulting in numerous deaths," the State Department's report on Nigeria states.
"Kidnappings and armed robbery by criminal gangs increased in the South as well as the North West, the South South, and the South East. The international Christian organization Open Doors stated that terrorist groups, militant herdsmen, and criminal gangs were responsible for large numbers of fatalities, and Christians were particularly vulnerable."
In June 2022, gunmen stormed into St. Francis Catholic Church in the southwestern Ondo state and killed dozens.
At least 700 Christians were reportedly killed in Nigeria during the month of May, according to an estimate released by the Anambra-based International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law.
The report comes as Nigerian Christians and human rights groups have voiced concerns for years that the violence being carried out against predominantly Christian farming communities in the Middle Belt states by radicalized herdsmen has reached genocidal levels as thousands have been killed in recent years.
However, the Nigerian government has rejected claims that the violence is influenced by religion and insists it's part of decades-old farmer-herder clashes. Additionally, data cited by the U.S. State Department suggests that violence targeting Christians accounts for a small fraction of the killings.
