Police arrest Catholic priest in Nigeria over New Year’s Eve shooting death

YAOUNDÉ, Cameroon – A parish priest in Nigeria has been arrested over the killing of a boy on New Year’s Eve night.

Father Joseph Enyinaya of the St. Columba Parish in the town of Amaimo in Nigeria’s Oweri Diocese in Imo State has been arrested.

The teenager was shot dead after setting off fireworks during a church service, defying the orders of the priest. The incident occurred as worshippers gathered to mark the end of the year.

Local news sources cited witnesses who say the priest fired twice in the air in efforts to disperse the group of boys who were setting off the fireworks inside the church. He then lost control of the weapon and ended up hitting the boy.

In a January 2 statement, Archbishop Lucius Ugorji of Oweri spoke about the shooting.

“The Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri highly regrets the shooting incident that took place on the eve of the New Year at the premises of St. Columba’s Catholic Church Amaimo, leading to the death of a young man and the wounding of another,” the statement reads.

“The Archdiocese of Owerri condoles with the bereaved family, and prays for the happy repose of the dead, and the speedy recovery of the injured,” Ugorji said.

He said the police had already launched an investigation into the death.

“The priest has been arrested, and the body of the boy has been deposited at a mortuary in Atta Ikeduru,” said police spokesperson, Henry Okoye.

The killing has sparked mixed reactions on social media, particularly Facebook users. Ibeh Polycarp said the killing was “a very sorry situation.”

“Why would [a] Priest pull the trigger on a boy? What the boy did is wrong, and should be condemned, but it doesn’t warrant a Priest to kill him. This is indeed putting the Catholic Archdiocese of Owerri, in a very bad spotlight,” he wrote.

Okpe Onoja couldn’t understand why a priest would be carrying a firearm in the first place, while Owonikoko Kingsley Nostory – who identifies as a devout Catholic – wants the priest to serve a jail term.

Temitope Nicholas Ogundeji posted that

the boy should have respected the priest’s instructions.

“When the Bible says obedience is better than sacrifice, [do] you think it’s just rhetoric? A simple act of obedience by the boy could have prevented this avoidable and untimely death,” he wrote.

The killing of the boy by a priest looks like an isolated incident. Traditionally, it’s been priests and to a larger extent Christians in general who have always been on the firing line.

According to Release International – a UK-based international Christian Ministry that supports persecuted Christians worldwide – at least 50 Christians were killed in Nigeria on Christmas eve and Christmas Day. On December 22, 15 Christians were killed in a village in Plateau state. On Christmas Day at least 33 were killed in a separate attack on villages in Benue state.

“The attacks on these communities occurred when the people were busy celebrating Christmas with their loved ones,” resident Adam Kpandev told Christian Daily International-Morning Star News.

The Governor of Benue State – a Catholic priest, Father Hyacinth Alia – issued a statement on Dec. 27 describing the attacks as “heinous.”

“These attacks are a heinous assault on unarmed, innocent citizens of Benue state by suspected armed herders,” he said.

“I can assure you the perpetrators of this act will pay dearly for it. They may think they are not known, but they cannot be allowed to continue perpetrating this. It’s a matter of time,” Alia added.

The rising insecurity in Nigeria is encapsulated in a recent report by the Catholic–inspired NGO-the International Society for Civil Liberties and  the Rule of Law, Intersociety.

The report accuses the Nigerian military and vigilante organizations of killing at least 32,300 civilians in the southeast of the country over the past nine years.

Titled Nigeria: Ocean of Innocent Blood Flowing in the East  and published on 22 December, the report said the military committed atrocities against civilians under the guise of operations against the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra and its armed wing, the Eastern Security Network.

“Tens of thousands of people were unlawfully detained and tortured, over 6,000 blindfolded or face-bagged and bundled at late night from the east and dumped, un-investigated and un-tried, in secret military locations and prisons in seven northern states,” it says.

In recent comments to Crux, Nigerian Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto said the government’s failure to stem the rising tide of killings “is turning our country into one wide funeral home.”

“The lack of political will and clear commitment to end this tragedy is turning our country into one wide funeral home,” he said, and called for concrete, measurable timelines for progress.

“We will measure this government not by its promises, but clear signs that it can end this tragedy,” Kukah said.