ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 9, 2023 / 16:05 pm
Bishop Martin Igwemezie Uzoukwu of Minna, Nigeria, called for prayers for the release of a priest and a seminarian who were kidnapped by armed men on Aug. 3 in the north-central part of the country.
“I ask for your prayers for Father Paul Sanogo and the seminarian Melchior who were kidnapped by bandits in the early morning of Aug. 3 at the priest’s residence in Gyedna, Niger state,” the prelate said in a statement released on the day of the kidnapping.
“We pray the Lord hears our prayers and brings them back in peace,” he added. Sanogo, originally from Burkina Faso, is a missionary with the congregation of the Missionaries of Africa, known as the White Fathers, and Melkiori Dominick Mahinini is a seminarian from the town of Kigoma in Tanzania who does missionary work with the congregation.
Joseph Mlola, the bishop of Kigoma, said Mahinini was in Nigeria for “a missionary experience” before starting his theological studies. “We pray to God that the two abductees may soon have their freedom back,” he said.