{"id":156840,"date":"2025-03-26T17:15:57","date_gmt":"2025-03-26T16:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/kidnappers-demand-n20-million-to-free-imo-catholic-priest"},"modified":"2025-04-04T13:39:21","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T12:39:21","slug":"kidnappers-demand-n20-million-to-free-imo-catholic-priest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/kidnappers-demand-n20-million-to-free-imo-catholic-priest","title":{"rendered":"Kidnappers demand N20 million to free Imo catholic priest"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Kidnappers of Rev Fr John Ubaechu, the Parish Priest of Holy Family Catholic Church, Izombe, Imo State, are demanding N20 million as ransom for the release of the clergyman.<\/p>\n<p>Ubaechu was abducted in Ejemekwuru on Sunday evening while on his way to attend the annual retreat of priests of the Owerri Catholic Archdiocese, Imo.<\/p>\n<p>His abduction was confirmed by the Owerri Catholic Archdiocesan Chancellor and Secretary, Rev Fr Patrick Mbarah on Monday in Owerri, in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>A source from the church, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, on condition of anonymity, on Wednesday in Owerri, said the kidnappers had contacted some persons through whom they first demanded N50 million, before they reduced the amount.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost parishioners have been extremely worried about the safety of the priest since Fr John was kidnapped and his abductors are still keeping him up to today being Wednesday,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n<p>The source said, though there were conflicting reports on the kidnappers\u2019 demand, nobody is sure if the demand is actually coming from the abductors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome people are saying that the kidnappers are demanding N50 million, some N20 million and some N10 million, the fact remains that Fr. John is still with the kidnappers, we keep praying for his safe release.<\/p>\n<p>He also pleaded with the state government and security agencies to intervene and help rescue the priest, because he is a missionary who does not have anything yielding money for him,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n<p>Another parishioner, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, noted with regret that the abductor forced the priest to remove his cassock, forcing him out of his official vehicle before taking him away.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe got information that the kidnappers forced our priest to remove his white cassock and took him out of his vehicle before they went off.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNaval personnel at Izombe later recovered the vehicle,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n<p>He, however, appealed to the abductor to have a change of heart and release the priest.<\/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. Kidnappers of Rev Fr John Ubaechu, the Parish Priest of Holy Family Catholic Church, Izombe, Imo State, are demanding N20 million as ransom for the release of the clergyman. Ubaechu was abducted in Ejemekwuru on Sunday evening while on his way to attend the annual retreat of priests of the Owerri Catholic [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":156839,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,30],"tags":[4272,1018,2917,254],"class_list":["post-156840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-catholic-priest","tag-imo","tag-kidnappers","tag-nigeria"],"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>Kidnappers demand N20 million to free Imo catholic priest - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Kidnappers of Rev Fr John Ubaechu, the Parish Priest of Holy Family Catholic Church, Izombe, Imo State, are demanding N2 ...\" \/>\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\/kidnappers-demand-n20-million-to-free-imo-catholic-priest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kidnappers demand N20 million to free Imo catholic priest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Kidnappers of Rev Fr John Ubaechu, the Parish Priest of Holy Family Catholic Church, Izombe, Imo State, are demanding N2 ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/kidnappers-demand-n20-million-to-free-imo-catholic-priest\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-26T16:15:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-04T12:39:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/sm_1742997064.994503.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\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\/kidnappers-demand-n20-million-to-free-imo-catholic-priest#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/kidnappers-demand-n20-million-to-free-imo-catholic-priest\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Kidnappers demand N20 million to free Imo catholic priest\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-26T16:15:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-04T12:39:21+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/kidnappers-demand-n20-million-to-free-imo-catholic-priest\"},\"wordCount\":347,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/kidnappers-demand-n20-million-to-free-imo-catholic-priest#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/sm_1742997064.994503.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Catholic priest\",\"Imo\",\"kidnappers\",\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Community\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/kidnappers-demand-n20-million-to-free-imo-catholic-priest#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/kidnappers-demand-n20-million-to-free-imo-catholic-priest\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/kidnappers-demand-n20-million-to-free-imo-catholic-priest\",\"name\":\"Kidnappers demand N20 million to free Imo catholic priest - 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