Two seminarians kidnapped in Nigeria’s southern Edo State appeared in a video filmed by their captors, pleading with their parents, the Church and the general public to help secure their release. They were seized in an attack on the Diocese of Auchi’s Immaculate Conception Minor Seminary in Ivianokpodi, Agenebode, Etsako East Local Government Area on 10 July. In the video, which appeared online earlier this month and was verified by the diocesan spokesman Fr Peter Egielewa, the two teenagers appeared holding human skulls and surrounded by armed masked men who threatened to kill them.
In the video, the seminarians said: “They kill people here. Our abductors have threatened to kill us. Please, send money to them to spare our lives. They told us they have killed people and they are not afraid of killing us.” The diocese asked Catholics and all who sympathise with the seminarians, “who, out of the love of God ‘s work, have volunteered their lives for the vocation”, to come out to their rescue.
Gunmen killed a civil defence officer in their attack on the seminary on 10 July and abducted three seminarians, later releasing one. Following the abduction, the Edo State Commissioner of Police Agbonika ordered the deployment of tactical units to track the attackers and rescue the victims.
