Two priests in Nigeria of two States were killed over the weekend. Fr. Vitus Borogo, the priest serving in the Archdiocese of Kaduna was killed on 25 June.
“at Prison Farm, Kujama, along Kaduna-Kachia Road, after a raid on the farm by Terrorists,” the chancellor of the Kaduna archdiocese said in a statement shared with African media.
The priest, who was age 50, was the Catholic chaplain at Kaduna State Polytechnic.
In Edo state, Fr. Christopher Odia was kidnapped from his rectory at St. Michael Catholic Church, Ikabigbo, Uzairue, around 6:30 am June 26. He was killed by his abductors, the Diocese of Auchi has announced.
Fr. Odia was 41, and the administrator of St. Michael’s and principal of St. Philip Catholic Secondary School in Jattu.
The Sun, a Nigerian daily, reported that a Mass server and a local vigilante who followed the abductors were shot and killed during Fr. Odia’s kidnapping.
More Christians are killed for their faith in Nigeria than in any other country worldwide — at least 4,650 in 2021, and nearly 900 in the first three months of 2022 alone.
According to the UK-based human rights foundation Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Kaduna state has become “an epicenter of kidnapping and violence by non-state actors, despite being the most garrisoned state in Nigeria.”