News

Nigeria: Seminary Student Burned to Death in Attack

September 10, 2023

For information about Orthodox Christianity in Nigeria, see here.

For previous coverage of the persecution of Christians in Nigeria from ChristianPersecution.com, see here.

“Seminary Student Burned to Death in Attack in Nigeria,” Morning Star News, September 8, 2023:

ABUJA, Nigeria (Morning Star News) – Assailants in an area of Nigeria where Fulani terrorists have operated freely burned a Catholic seminary student to death Thursday night (Sept. 7) in a failed kidnapping attempt, sources said.

In an attack at about 8 p.m. on the rectory of St. Raphael’s Catholic Church in Fadan Kamantan, in southern Kaduna state, under the Kafanchan Diocese, terrorists unable to enter the home of the parish priest they sought to kidnap instead set it on fire, according to news outlet ACI Africa, citing an interview by Bishop Julius Yakubu Kundi of Kafanchan with charity Aid to the Church in Need.

The priest, the Rev. Emmanuel Okolo, and his assistant managed to escape, but the fire killed seminary student Na’aman Danlami, 25, Kundi reportedly said.

An area priest who had taught Danlami at the St. Albert Institute, the Rev. Williams Kaura Abba, asked for prayer in a text message to Morning Star News.

“The bandits went for a kidnapping spree,” Abba said. “Two priests in the burnt house were able to escape. The seminarian was trapped. The bandits set the rectory ablaze. Na’aman Danlami, the seminarian, died of asphyxiation and suffered severe burns. May God rest the soul of this martyr.”…

The Rev. John Hayab, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Kaduna State Chapter, lamented lack of security in the area.

“It is sad that killings and this type of evil against Christians are still going on in spite of our appeal and pleading to Nigerian government to take measures towards ending these attacks,” Hayab said….