Arise TV anchor Rufai Oseni fought back tears on air last night as he paid tribute to Venerable Edwin Achi, the Kaduna Anglican priest who was murdered by his kidnappers even after his family paid a huge ransom.
“Nigeria has happened to him,” Rufai said quietly.
“They raised money, paid the ransom, and then the bandits called and said, ‘Come and carry your pastor’s body, it is already decomposing.’
He was killed simply because he was a clergyman, a man of God. When people say there is no religious persecution of Christians in this country, I will tell them the plain truth: this was murder because of his faith.”
The priest, in his early 60s, was abducted from his home in Nissi Village, near Kaduna Refinery, on the night of 28 October together with his wife (a Customs officer) and their daughter. After weeks of desperate fundraising, the family managed to pay the reduced ransom of N100 million.
Instead of freedom, they received directions to a bush path where Ven. Achi’s body lay. His wife and daughter are still being held.
Perhaps the most heartbreaking detail Rufai shared: the priest’s mother, who is in her nineties and lives in Delta State, has still not been told that her son is dead.
“Nobody has found the courage to break the news to her,” he said. “Imagine a woman in her nineties waiting for a son in his sixties to come home… and he never will.”
The murder has deepened the national conversation about the targeting of Christian clergy in northern Nigeria. Many Nigerians praised Rufai for speaking plainly, with one viral comment reading: “Thank you, Rufai. When pastors are killed after paying ransom, it is no longer just kidnapping. It is hatred.”
The Diocese of Kaduna has cancelled its big annual outreach programme in honour of Ven. Achi and continues to plead for the release of his wife and daughter.
As burial plans begin in Delta State, the priest’s death has become another painful reminder that, for too many families, paying ransom no longer guarantees a loved one’s safe return.
~copied etodike
