The Kidnap And Killing Of Rev. Fr Chris Odia At Ikabigbo, Etsako West: What’s Giving Rise To These Killings?
The Oasis Reporters
June 29, 2022
R-L: Brigade Commander, 4 Brigade, Nigerian Army, Brig.-Gen. Sani Abdullahi; Edo State Commissioner of Police, Abutu Yaro; Edo State Acting Governor, Rt. Hon. Comrade Philip Shaibu, during a Ikabigbo, in Etsako West Local Government Area, on Monday, June 27, 2022.
Nigerians keep wondering why Priests and Christians as well as moderate Muslims are always targets of gunshot killings and other forms of murder by either bandits or islamists in the country . It is on a record that some Muslim clerics have also been killed brutally.
The question that bears repeating is, why?
Is religion becoming so much of a threat that priests and ordinary churchgoers have become objects of attacks ?
It kept happening in Benue, Plateau States and parts of Kaduna State. Now it is spreading to the Southern part of the country with the brutal massacre at St Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Owo Ondo State. A few weeks later, Nigerians read this sad news:
“Sad news. Confirmed.
Fr Christopher Ogedegbe Odia – kidnapped this morning in Ikabigbo, Etsako West, Edo state- was today killed by his kidnappers. His body has been recovered”.
Sad news. Confirmed.
— Dr Great Oracle (@AbdulMahmud01) June 26, 2022
Fr Christopher Ogedegbe Odia – kidnapped this morning in Ikabigbo, Etsako West, Edo state- was today killed by his kidnappers. His body has been recovered. pic.twitter.com/MMniPWDulf
But why? We ask once again.
Last Sunday in virtually all the Churches in the South West, saw beefed up security with worshippers being frisked by the police with the assistance of church security men and women. What was common practice in the north is being exported to the South.
The way out of this mess is for religious leaders, political leaders, psychologists and sociologists to brainstorm and find out what is giving rise to this increased hate and to find a way out of the quagmire.
