LAGOS.- Armed men attacked an evangelical church this Saturday in southwestern Nigeria, in the state of Ogun, and killed a priest, in addition to kidnapping seven parishioners who were later rescued, community security forces confirmed today.
The attack occurred around 00:00 local time on Saturday (23:00 GMT on Friday) in a parish of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), which belongs to the Pentecostal movement, according to a statement from the Social Guidance Corps and Ogun Security (So-Safe Corps), a paramilitary surveillance group recognized by regional authorities.
The So-Safe Corps “received a distress call that some of the RCCG members (…) in the town of Obafemi Owode were attacked during a vigil,” said its commander, Soji Ganzallo, according to local media reports.
“The seven victims were rescued unharmed, while one of the hijackers was killed and many of the suspects sustained serious injuries during the shooting,” it added.
The attack came a year after Ondo state, also located in the southwest of the country, was the scene of a massacre against a Catholic church, carried out by armed men in June 2022, which left at least forty people dead.
Nigeria suffers relentless attacks and mass kidnappings for lucrative ransoms carried out by “bandits” (a term used in the country to name criminal gangs), but these usually take place in the center and northwest of the country.
Added to this insecurity is the jihadist threat that has plagued the northeast of the country since 2009, caused by the Boko Haram group and, since 2015, by its faction ISWAP (Islamic State in West Africa Province).
