Gunmen riding motorcycles stormed the premises of Saint Pius X parish in southern Nigeria on Sunday and abducted Father Alphonsus Uboh, the parish pastor.
The kidnappers reportedly arrived at the parish rectory in Akwa Ibom State around 7:00 p.m. on Sunday after the conclusion of Mother’s Day celebrations and a fundraising ceremony organized by the Catholic Women’s Organization (CWO).
An eyewitness said that the assailants randomly fired their guns into the air before taking the priest hostage.
“Preliminary findings show that the abductors, who came with two motorcycles, went to the back fence of the victim’s house, and whisked him away,” said Odiko Macdon, police public relations officer of Akwa Ibom State.
The chairman of the parish council at Saint Pius X, Cletus Okodi, said that the priest contacted him on the phone Monday afternoon. Father Uboh told Okodi that he is being held in a forest whose location he does not know and that his captors are demanding a ransom of 100 million Nigerian naira ($240,000) for his release.
A former youth president of the parish, Uwemedimo Patrick, similarly said he had spoken briefly with the kidnapped cleric before the priest’s phone was abruptly switched off.
Father Justin Udoma, the director of communications in the Catholic Diocese of Uyo, confirmed the incident but said that only the diocesan bishop could make an official statement on the matter.
Father Uboh’s kidnapping took place just 19 days after a popular televangelist and founder of the Solid Rock Kingdom Church, Pastor John Okoriko, was abducted from the same community.
Pastor Okoriko’s captors made an identical ransom demand of 100 million naira for his release.
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