Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, to protest against increasing cases of kidnappings for ransom, in which many Christians have been targeted.
Several people blocked the highway between Abuja and Kaduna, with burning tires, shouting, “we must stop the kidnappings”.
Among the kidnapped there are several priests, including the seventy-year-old Fr Joe Keke, who is still in the hands of the kidnappers.
Keke was captured on May 20 in the night assault on the parish of St. Vincent Ferrer in Malunfashi, in Katsina State. He was taken along with Fr Alphonsus Bello, whose lifeless body was found the following day.
There has been a serious escalation in violence against Christians in Nigeria in the last few months. Thousands have been kidnapped and hundreds killed in what appear to be targeted attacks.
Several Catholic leaders are demanding more security for all.
The Association of Catholic Jurists asked the government for an urgent summit of all interested parties to address security issues.
“Nigeria is a confused State with no direction since no one knows where we are going or where we come from,” said Matthew Hassan Kuka, Archbishop of Kaduna, in his homily on Sunday, May 23.
Nigerian NGO Intersociety, reports that in the months January to April, there was a dramatic escalation of violence, as Nigeria “lost no fewer than 1,470 Christians… the highest number recorded since 2014.”
These findings were echoed by reports just published by both the US State Department and the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) which describe Nigeria as a “country of particular concern for tolerating severe violations of religious freedom.”
“Citizens are losing faith in the government because it fails to fulfil its main constitutional responsibility, which is the protection of the life and property of its citizens,” warns His Exc. Mgr. Stephen Dami Mamza, Bishop of Yola.
“The inability of the authorities to stop the fundamentalists as they continue to kill, rape, destroy homes, and kidnap, is a confirmation of the complicity on the part of the federal authorities. Among the thousands killed by the armed pastors were also priests and catechists,” says the priest.
These crimes are attributed to the Fulani shepherds for reasons of sharing pastures and water resources, but according to Fr. Iorapuu “the fact that people are kidnapped far from agricultural land, killed in church or while sleeping,” shows that there is another motivation, which aims to expel these populations from their lands.