Very Rev. Fr. John Mark Chietnum, a Catholic priest from Kaduna who was abducted, has been murdered by his captors.
However, a second priest who was taken captive alongside him, Rev. Fr. Donatus Cleopas, managed to flee the kidnappers’ lair.
On July 15, they were kidnapped at the Christ the King Parish Rector in Yadin Garu, Lere Local Government Area, Kaduna State.
According to a statement from the Catholic Diocese of Kafanchan, Rev. Fr Emmanuel Uchechukwu Okolo, Rev. Chietnum’s decomposing body was found on Tuesday.
The day they were kidnapped is reported to have seen his murder.
Rev. Chietnum served as the coordinating CAN chairman for Southern Kaduna and the CAN chairman for the Jema’a Local Government Area till his death.
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Meanwhile, five villagers in Kaduna State’s Ganin-Gari settlement in Randagi Ward in the western Birnin Gwari Local Area were massacred by bandits.
According to a statement from the Birnin-Gwari Emirate Progressive Union (BEPU) and signed by Ishaq Usman Kafai, the attack happened on Sunday when a group of roughly 40 criminals riding 14 motorcycles stormed the neighborhood.
He claimed that the bandits abducted an unknown number of residents, killed two people, and rustled cattle.
According to Kafai, a combined team of police officers and neighborhood watchmen confronted the bandits near Tudun Wada Bridge and liberated all the kidnapped victims and cattle that had been rustled.
“On their way back to their hideouts, they (bandits) killed a mad teenage boy who they come across on the road around the Dawakin Bassa community. On Monday they also killed another two locals at their farms, bringing to total the number of locals killed to five,” he said.
