Gunmen reportedly severed a pastor’s fingers while abducting six worshipers from a Pentecostal church in the southern Delta state of Nigeria last weekend, according to reports in Nigerian media.
Police Public Relations Officer of the State Command Bright Edafe confirmed the Saturday evening attack at Elyon Paradise Ministry Church in Asagba Ogwashi to Nigerian newsoutlets. The perpetrators have not been identified.
The church’s pastor is Apostle Divine Omodia, who was hospitalized and receiving treatment, according to Business Day. Those missing from the church have been identified in the media as Helen Onwuamaeze, Ariyo Emmanuel, Chike Okolo, Blessing Waye and two security guards.
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“I was lying down with my baby in the church hall while some men were outside with my husband when suddenly we heard gunshots,” the pastor’s wife, Faith Omodia, told Business Day. “We saw bullets in the church, so they were shooting inside the auditorium. One of them saw me where I was hiding and shot at me, but it did not penetrate; I just saw fire.”
The wife said that the gunman shot her husband, with the bullet severing two of his fingers.
“The gunmen came into the church and forced everyone in the church building out. Some of the men who were outside discussing with my husband had already escaped,” she was quoted as saying. “The women inside were all brought out of the church building and made to lie down outside. They then left with some members and ordered the rest of us to go back into the church building.”
A source told The Punch that the kidnapped members were rounded up and taken away to an unknown location.
“Till today (Sunday), the kidnappers have not called to demand a ransom for the release of the abducted victims since the incident occurred,” the source told The Punch.
One of the church pastors, Steve Victor Onuchukwu, told The Guardian Nigeria shortly after the attack that there was serious concern for the fate of their pastor as a medical team battled to keep him alive.
“We have rushed the pastor to the hospital. He is even at the theatre right now where doctors are working on him to make sure his life is stabilized,” Onuchukwu said. It is not immediately clear what Omodia’s status is as of Monday morning.
Open Doors ranks Nigeria among the worst countries in the world when it comes to Christian persecution. In addition to attacks by armed extremist groups in the Muslim-majority northeast and Middle Belt states that have driven millions from their homes, kidnapping for ransom is “used regularly with the deliberate intention of destabilizing Christian families and the church,” the group states.
While persecution and violence against Christians are more common in northern Muslim-majority states, attacks are “increasingly spreading southward, into the Middle Belt and even further south, to where the majority of Nigeria’s Christians live,” Open Doors warns.
