Nigeria most wanted kidnapper captured

Kidnap for ransom is big business in Nigeria. It has one of the highest abduction rates in the world, with the U.S., U.K. and other governments warning travelers to the West African country that kidnapping is a real possibility.

But Nigerian authorities are hoping that the risk has been significantly decreased after they captured alleged kidnapper Chukwudi Dumem Onuamadkie, also known as Evans, over the weekend.

Evans, 36 and a native of Anambra State in Southern Nigeria, has been described as “most wanted, vicious and highly notorious.” He has been implicated in a series of high-profile kidnappings in the country in recent years, according to an emailed statement from Nigeria’s police; his victims included foreign nationals, traditional chiefs and wealthy businessmen. Evans also has become one of Nigeria’s wealthiest alleged criminals: Police said he owns two mansions in an upmarket district of Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub, as well as two properties in Accra, the capital of neighboring Ghana.

According to Nigeria’s police force, Evans would use two separate gangs to conduct kidnappings: one to carry out the abduction and another to transfer the victim to a safe house. The gang leader extracted million-dollar ransoms from the families of his victims, whom he would keep in captivity for months at a time. In one case, Evans’ gang allegedly attempted to double a $1 million ransom because the victim’s family were rude during the negotiation process.

Police raided a Lagos property belonging to Evans on Saturday and engaged in a gun battle with the suspect and his associates. Security forces eventually overpowered them and arrested seven people in the operation, while also seizing 10 guns and more than 1,000 rounds of AK-47 ammunition.

“This is a huge success for the Nigeria Police Force. The Force will build on this success and continue to prevent kidnap cases and criminality generally in the country,” said Jimoh Moshood, police public relations officer at the force’s headquarters in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria.

Moshood said that Evans and his gang members had “confessed to all the kidnappings linked to them” and would be charged following an investigation.

Nigeria is facing a wide range of security issues. Boko Haram, a jihadi group with ties to the Islamic State militant group (ISIS), continues to launch attacks in the northeast, though it has been substantially weakened by military offensives. Tensions remain high in the oil-producing Niger Delta, where militants slashed oil production in 2016 by blowing up pipelines. And clashes between settled farmers and pastoralists in the country’s Middle Belt resulted in more deaths in 2016 than the Boko Haram insurgency, according to a report by Nigerian consultancy SBM Intelligence.

But Evans’ capture marks the second high-profile advance in tackling the kidnapping problem in recent months. In March, police shot dead an alleged kidnapper and serial killer, Henry Chibueze—popularly known as Vampire for the brutality of his killings—after he escaped detention in January and went on the run.

Newsweek

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Pope Francis threatens to sack Nigerian priests

Pope Francis has laid down an ultimatum to defiant Nigerian priests: lose your job if you don’t obey me and your bishop.

According to a report by Associated Press, Pope Francis met June 8 at the Vatican with a delegation from the Ahiara diocese, south-east Nigeria where priests have been refusing to accept the 2012 appointment by the then pontiff, Benedict XVI, of the local bishop.

The Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, reporting the pope’s unusually harsh order, said on Sunday that Francis was acting “for the good of the people of God” by threatening to suspend the priests from the ministry if they didn’t pledge in a letter, by July 9, “total obedience” to Francis and accept Bishop Peter Okpaleke’s appointment.

Mr. Francis told the visiting delegation he was “very sad” about the priests’ refusal to obey and ruled out tribal loyalties as explaining the refusal.

Africa has been one of the continents where the Catholic church is growing. The faithful and clergy there often imbue their practices with local culture in dynamic contrast to more traditional routines in Europe or North America.

Francis’ move to end disobedience to the Vatican aims at ensuring the growing church there will be loyal to the pontiff.

His remarks to the visiting delegation indicated how dangerous he viewed any rebellion against papal authority.

Those priests opposing Mr. Okpaleke’s taking up of his office “want to destroy the church, which is not permitted,” the pope said in his address to the delegation.

He added: “the pope can’t be indifferent” to the rebellion.

He has often taken a conciliatory tone in resolving disputes, but in this one he was entertaining no diplomacy. He demanded that each priest in the diocese write to him asking forgiveness and “clearly manifest total obedience to the pope.”

They must also accept the bishop chosen by Rome. If, within a month, each priest doesn’t do so, he will be “ispo facto suspended,” such as from the celebration of the sacraments, and “will lose his current office,” Francis warned.

Francis acknowledged that his move “seems very harsh.” He added that he had even considered the extraordinary remedy of suppressing the entire diocese but didn’t, so as not to hurt rank-and-file faithful.

He said he thought the rebellious priests might have been manipulated from outside the diocese or even abroad, but named no culprits.

In 2015, the diocese served around 520,000 Catholics, out of a local population of about 675,000, and had 128 diocesan priests and seven other priests. It wasn’t immediately clear how many of the priests were involved in the rebellion against the bishop’s appointment.

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