Aug. 22 (EUROPA PRESS) –
A group of armed men kidnapped four nuns from a Catholic congregation in the city of Okigwe, in southern Nigeria, on Sunday as they headed to the neighboring town of Umulolo to attend a religious service.
The victims belong to the congregation of Las Hermanas de Jesús El Salvador, whose main person in charge, Sister Zita Ihedoro, has reported on what happened in a statement that has been echoed by several Nigerian media.
“Dear brothers and sisters of Christ, it is with great sorrow that we inform you of the kidnapping of four of our sisters”, the nuns Johannes Nwodo, Christabel Echemazu, Liberata Mbamalu and Benita Agu, for whom he has asked for “intense prayers” in order to achieve a “quick and safe release”.
In recent times, some towns located between the states of Imo and Abia, in southern Nigeria, have suffered an increase in kidnappings. The last one, just over a week ago, when armed men kidnapped a priest and a seminarian on the road between Okigwe and Umunneochi.
Both were released last week after paying a ransom. Worse luck has befallen an agent of the Umunneochi Police, in the state of Abia, whose whereabouts are unknown after being assaulted by armed men, according to the Nigerian newspaper ‘Premiu Times’.
Several people have been kidnapped in recent months in some of the towns that border these two regions. While some were released shortly after the payment of a ransom, sometimes of up to one hundred million naira (about 240,000 euros), others remain unaccounted for.
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