Recently the clergy has been at risk of the escalating spade of kidnappings. The media is agog everyday with reports from all parts of the country.
In a chat with News Dot Africa on Sunday, One of the kidnapped victims, Reverend Father Stephen Ojapah serving in one of Catholic Parishes in Katsina State, his assistant, Rev Father Oliver Okparah and two others, were taken away on 25th May 2022, has relayed his experience during captivity for what he termed 33 days horror.
Tell us your name Father.and what Happened..
“My name is Stephen Ojakpa, I am a Catholic Parish Priest in Katsina state. On 25 May this year , about 15 men came and took me, my assistant and 2 siblings who came visiting away from the premises. We trecked for 2 days to a desert at Birnin Gwari and stayed there for 33 days without bathing, we were smelling at a time we stopped smelling, not because we bathed but because the smell became part of us as our bodies were itching.
“As soon as we arrived the beat the hell out of saying it is morning tea.
Rev Fr Stephen on black with the officiating priest , Rev Father James Yakubu at the MSP Residence Chapel dancing to the Alter during Thanksgiving.
“We met other victims which we made us to be 9 in number and ate beans, rice with palm oil, drank muddy water amist insults and and threats to our lives.
He noted that the prayers of the of parishioners and all others who prayed worked because the only option left in kidnappers then was death as the threats of shooting us were issued at will.
On the reason for the kidnap, Mathew thinks they are targeting Christians and also trying to raise funds to buy arms.
“They are doing it to discourage Christians and to get money to buy arms.
On the Security situation in the Country,
Fr Mathew called on the Federal Government of NIgeria to step up action on the insecurity challenges bedeviling the country which presently is hopeless. as huge ransome is usually paid to free the captives or they are killed.
