{"id":157036,"date":"2025-03-28T11:32:18","date_gmt":"2025-03-28T10:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/why-i-kidnapped-kaduna-catholic-priest-suspect"},"modified":"2025-04-04T14:13:19","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T13:13:19","slug":"why-i-kidnapped-kaduna-catholic-priest-suspect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/all-news\/why-i-kidnapped-kaduna-catholic-priest-suspect","title":{"rendered":"Why I kidnapped Kaduna Catholic priest \u2013 Suspect"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>A chief suspect in the kidnapping and killing of Rev. Fr. Sylvester Okechukwu, has provided reasons for his actions in an exclusive interview with NAN.<\/p>\n<p>The suspect, who said he needed N200,000 to solve a personal problem, spoke to NAN at the Headquarters of the Operation Safe Haven, OPSH, where he is currently being held on Thursday in Jos.<\/p>\n<p>The suspect is helping detectives unravel the cause of the incident and how to arrest other suspects now on the run.<\/p>\n<p>Okechukwu, a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Kafachan, Kaduna State, was abducted on March 4, at about 9:15 p.m. at his residence in Tachira, Kaura Local Government of the state.<\/p>\n<p>He was later found dead on March 5.<\/p>\n<p>The prime suspect, who said he invited other criminals from elsewhere to accomplish the assignment, denied asking his colleagues to kill the priest.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFr Okechukwu is living in our house at Tachira and I masterminded his kidnap because I needed N200,000 to solve a personal problem.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI invited some guys (colleagues) from other places to assist me to accomplish the mission but I didn\u2019t ask them to kill him.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know why they (allegedly) killed him; I was not with them because I later left them with the priest,\u201dhe said.<\/p>\n<p>Another suspect, names withheld, who is also being held at OPSH, said the chief suspect had called him to assist him to actualise the crime.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt first, I refused to be part of the deal, but the chief suspect insisted. The chief suspect and I grew up in the same community.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, on the said date I left my place in Warsa-Piti in Lere LG and participated in the kidnap of the priest.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe actually contacted other guys from Bokkos in Plateau who came with guns; after we took the priest and walked for some distance, we left him with them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, we can\u2019t say how and why they allegedly killed the priest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>An official of the OPSH, who preferred anonymity, said that the suspects were arrested on Tuesday, following a raid troops conducted in a settlement at Warsa-Piti community of Lere.<\/p>\n<p>The official said that investigations were ongoing to unravel the whereabouts of the remaining persons who allegedly participated in the heinous crime.<\/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. A chief suspect in the kidnapping and killing of Rev. Fr. Sylvester Okechukwu, has provided reasons for his actions in an exclusive interview with NAN. The suspect, who said he needed N200,000 to solve a personal problem, spoke to NAN at the Headquarters of the Operation Safe Haven, OPSH, where he is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":157035,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,30],"tags":[96,254],"class_list":["post-157036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-community","tag-kaduna","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>Why I kidnapped Kaduna Catholic priest \u2013 Suspect - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A chief suspect in the kidnapping and killing of Rev. Fr. 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