{"id":153999,"date":"2025-03-04T23:25:55","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T22:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/gunmen-kidnap-catholic-priest-seminarian-in-edo"},"modified":"2025-03-10T23:10:18","modified_gmt":"2025-03-10T22:10:18","slug":"gunmen-kidnap-catholic-priest-seminarian-in-edo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/gunmen-kidnap-catholic-priest-seminarian-in-edo","title":{"rendered":"Gunmen kidnap catholic priest, Seminarian in Edo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Gunmen suspected to be kidnappers have abducted a Catholic priest identified as Philip Ekeli and Peter Andrew, a seminarian.<\/p>\n<p>The duo were abducted on Monday at about 11:30 pm at St. Peter Catholic Church in Iviukwa in Etsako East Local Government Area of Edo State.<\/p>\n<p>The Edo State Police Command confirmed the abduction.<\/p>\n<p>It said one of the suspects was killed while four others were arrested.<\/p>\n<p>The Command\u2019s image maker, Moses Yamu disclosed this in a statement made available to newsmen in Benin City, on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Yamu listed the arrested suspects as Murtala Ibrahim, 32, Joshua Joseph, 31, Sadiq Sheidu, 35 and Sunday Bulus, 28.<\/p>\n<p>He said the sum of N168,850, two pairs of rubber shoes, one button Tecno phone with 2 sim cards, one power bank, one dagger jacket, a bag containing biscuits and Nescafe\u0300 beverage were recovered from the suspects.<\/p>\n<p>The statement read in part: \u201con 03\/03\/2025 at about 2330hrs, the Command received a distress call from a concerned citizen that armed men suspected to be herdsmen stormed St. Peter Catholic Church in Ivukwa community, Etsako East LGA, abducting Rev. Father Philip Ekeli and Seminarian Peter Andrew.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Police initiated a rescue operation involving the Operation Rescue teams, vigilantes, and hunters and swiftly rushed to the scene and engaged the attackers in a gun duel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of the suspects whose name is unknown was neutralised, and the corpse deposited at the General Hospital Agenebode.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTwo (2) pairs of rubber shoes, one button Tecno phone with 2 sim cards, One (1) power bank, one dagger jacket, a bag containing biscuits and Nescafe\u0300 beverage, the sum of one hundred and sixty-eight Thousand, eight hundred and fifty naira (168,850) were recovered in his possession.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFurthermore, the following suspects; Murtala Ibrahim, 32yrs, Joshua Joseph, 31yrs, Sadiq Sheidu 35yrs, and Sunday Bulus 28yrs were arrested.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Command\u2019s Public Relations Officer added that the Commissioner of Police in the State, Betty Enekpen Isokpan has immediately detailed additional teams of the anti kidnapping unit to join forces with Police Mobile Force personnel alongside their military counterparts in the area.<\/p>\n<p>He said the deployment was to ensure the unconditional release of the victims and to apprehend the abductors.<\/p>\n<p>The chairman of the Police Community Relations Committee, PCRC, put a distress call to security operatives that the church was under siege.<\/p>\n<p>It was learnt that security agencies, including Rapid Response Squad (RRS) operatives, were deployed to the scene, where they confirmed the abduction of the priest and the seminarian<\/p>\n<p>The suspected kidnappers were reported to have whisked their victims into a nearby bush.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Gunmen suspected to be kidnappers have abducted a Catholic priest identified as Philip Ekeli and Peter Andrew, a seminarian. The duo were abducted on Monday at about 11:30 pm at St. Peter Catholic Church in Iviukwa in Etsako East Local Government Area of Edo State. The Edo State Police Command confirmed the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":153998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,30],"tags":[4272,443,190,138,254,11254],"class_list":["post-153999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-catholic-priest","tag-edo","tag-gunmen","tag-kidnap","tag-nigeria","tag-seminarian"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Gunmen kidnap catholic priest, Seminarian in Edo - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gunmen suspected to be kidnappers have abducted a Catholic priest identified as Philip Ekeli and Peter Andrew, a seminar ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/gunmen-kidnap-catholic-priest-seminarian-in-edo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gunmen kidnap catholic priest, Seminarian in Edo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gunmen suspected to be kidnappers have abducted a Catholic priest identified as Philip Ekeli and Peter Andrew, a seminar ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/gunmen-kidnap-catholic-priest-seminarian-in-edo\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-04T22:25:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-10T22:10:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/sm_1741118325.949652.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"718\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/gunmen-kidnap-catholic-priest-seminarian-in-edo#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/gunmen-kidnap-catholic-priest-seminarian-in-edo\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Gunmen kidnap catholic priest, Seminarian in Edo\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-04T22:25:55+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-10T22:10:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/gunmen-kidnap-catholic-priest-seminarian-in-edo\"},\"wordCount\":436,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/gunmen-kidnap-catholic-priest-seminarian-in-edo#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/sm_1741118325.949652.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Catholic priest\",\"Edo\",\"Gunmen\",\"Kidnap\",\"Nigeria\",\"Seminarian\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/gunmen-kidnap-catholic-priest-seminarian-in-edo#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/gunmen-kidnap-catholic-priest-seminarian-in-edo\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/gunmen-kidnap-catholic-priest-seminarian-in-edo\",\"name\":\"Gunmen kidnap catholic priest, Seminarian in Edo - 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