Fr. Samuel Okwuidegbe, a Jesuit priest recalls his horrific three
days in the hands of kidnappers, who plucked him right on Benin Asaba
Highway, leaving his car.He was on his way to Onitsha for a retreat
He is lucky as he survived to tell his story:
It was supposed to be a quiet retreat weekend last April for Fr. Sam
Okwuidegbe, a Nigerian Jesuit priest and director of a local
spirituality center.
Before he left, he chatted with his new provincial, Fr. Chuks
Afiawari, who joked with Fr. Sam: “Make sure where you are going they
don’t kidnap you.”
“We laughed about it,” Fr. Sam recalled.
Little did the priests know that the joke would be an unfortunate
foreshadowing of what was to come. In a testimony posted on the website
of the Jesuit Superiors of Africa and Madagascar, Fr. Sam recalled how
his faith carried him through a traumatic and harrowing experience of
kidnapping.
On his way to the retreat, which was to be in Onitsha, in the state
of Anambra, Fr. Sam took a familiar, seemingly safe highway on which he
had traveled many times.
That’s why he was so surprised when he heard gunshots.
“On glancing back I saw all the vehicles behind me stopping, and
trying to reverse … that’s when it hit me that there was something
dangerous ahead of me,” he recalled.
“On looking up I saw masked men with AK47 rifles shooting. I was so
scared. I also stopped my car abruptly and began to reverse, but as I
was trying to do that, a man suddenly appeared … and said, ‘If you don’t
get out of the car I’ll shoot you.’”
The priest could see behind him that the men had also stopped another
car, a black Mercedes, and were forcing two men out of the car. In a
hurry, Fr. Sam left his phone in the car.
He quickly identified the armed kidnappers as Fulani herdsmen, a
notoriously violent group whose clashes with farmers have killed
thousands of people in Nigeria over the past two decades. According to
the Global Terrorism Index, they were the fourth most violent militant
group in the world in 2014.
Violence against Christians has also significantly increased in the
country in recent years, particularly in Muslim-majority areas. In 2016,
one Nigerian bishop lamented that Christians had essentially become
“target practice.”
The Fulani kidnappers led Fr. Sam and the other two men into the
forest at gunpoint for eight hours, barely stopping for breaks. They
eventually let one of the two other men go, because he could not keep up
with the pace, but they first cut his feet so that he could not escape
quickly, Fr. Sam recalled.
“The pace in the forest was jogging, jumping over tree trumps, going
over leaves, which often cut through our skin. So it was quite brutal!”
Fr. Sam said.
“I was so shaken, and began to ask myself, is this happening to me?
What am I doing in this forest? What am I doing here? I felt extremely
cold and in my confusion … I’d mutter to myself, this can’t be
happening, God. This can’t be happening,” he said.
The captors started questioning Fr. Sam and the other man, and were
suspicious when Fr. Sam identified himself as a priest; they thought he
might be a government spy. They stripped him of all his belongings – his
watch, wallet, and rosary.
When they questioned Fr. Sam about his phone, the captors were
enraged that he had left it in his car – which was fortunate, the
priest said, because he had saved financial information from his work on
it.
The militants asked him if he could remember anyone’s number –
someone to call who could negotiate for Fr. Sam’s life and pay off the
herdsmen. Traumatized by his experience, Fr. Sam couldn’t remember one
phone number.
“That triggered a series of beatings…they huddled me up, hands and
feet tied to the back with a rope like a goat before a kill. They
removed my cassock, then my shirt, threw me into the dirt on the ground,
and began to beat me with the back of their guns, they’d kick me hard
on my sides, slap across my face, push and pull me hard across the
ground…one of them said ‘We are going to burn you alive!’” the priest
recalled.
“I really believed that they were going to do it…I began to pray in
silence…I said, ‘God, I commit to you, I commit my spirit’ and I
resigned to the thought of my fate, that I was going to die that day.’”
Finally, the beating stopped. Fr. Sam said he remembers praying constantly through the whole experience.
“I hoped for a miracle…every minute I’d pray saying all kinds of
prayers, I’d pray to Saint Ignatius, say the rosary and the Divine Mercy
(chaplet)…at one time I found myself singing heartily but in the
inside, a Ghanaian song that says ‘God speak to me…God where are you?’ I
kept humming in my heart…it gave me hope,” he said.
Eventually Fr. Sam was able to get the phone number of another Jesuit
priest through the contact of the other man in captivity. This priest,
Jesuit provincial Fr. Jude Odiaka, began negotiations with the herdsmen.
And while at times he prayed for death, Fr. Sam said he felt better once he had made contact with the Jesuits.
“I knew that word must have gotten around about the kidnapping, and
that the sisters at the retreat centre and people who knew me all over,
must have been praying for me.”
The other man who had been captured with Fr. Sam also was a great comfort, he recalled.
“…the guy I was kidnapped with…he was a grace for me, a gift from
God. I hope I was too for him because we exchanged words of
encouragement silently, as we were not allowed to talk to each (other).”
Finally, the captors seemed to have gotten what they wanted, and started talking of letting the men go.
“I intensified my prayers and I prayed to God ‘Please God, make this end well,’” Fr. Sam said.
“I recalled a saying that ‘God will not bring you this far, then abandon you’, so this brought some assurance to my heart,”
When the militants decided to release the men, they were left to
wander alone together through the forest, trying to find the pathway
out. Eventually, they were able to make it to safety and back home.
While the experience was “painful and traumatizing,” Fr. Sam said one
of the best consolations upon his return was hearing from many people,
near and far, that they had been praying for him.
“In all these things God revealed to me that I was never abandoned
while in the forest, even if I was out of reach and in danger, that God
heard the prayers and was with me,” he said.
“It has renewed my faith in God, my faith in people…the human person,
God’s gift of friendship and that if what I do matters, then also those
people I do it with are also very important.”
Fr. Sam said he also plans to use his experience to help other people in his work as a counselor.
“This has also given me an understanding to accompany those who come
to me for help seeking solace, encouragement, strength, hope,
renewal…you know…maybe that’s why it happened,” he said.
“I’m going to use it in my work as a counselor, psychologist and help
those who come to me for help, because what support can be given to
people that have been kidnapped? What help can we give such people? I
think I have become part of that help with what I have received, and
experienced.”
Popular News
-
A US mayor of a small town in Illinois who sent Police officers on Sunday to break up parties amid coronavirus lockdown was left shocked ...
-
Happy New Month Nigeria! Welcome to the month of June. As the world searches for a respite from all its troubles since 2020 began, one can ...
-
The Supreme Court has ruled that Nigerians should continue using old N200, N500 and N1000 banknotes as legal tender. The apex court, i...
-
Nigeria's number one man, President Bola Tinubu is currently meeting with “The class of 1999 governors” at the presidential villa, Ab...
-
As you are about to choose memory booster supplement, look for anyone that contains the right ingredients that help improve memory and co...
-
The Osun State Governor, Chief Ademola Adeleke, has escaped a horrific fate, according to a report by Leadership. By a stroke of luck, wh...
-
The military has assured Nigerians that it will work in collaboration with other security agencies to ensure that the 2023 general electi...
-
Nigerian workers have been ordered to take over all the offices of the Central Bank of Nigeria nationwide starting from next week over th...
-
Veteran actress, Kate Henshaw has taken to Instagram to share adorable photos with her daughter. The thespian shared photos of them rock...
-
For the quarter, added 537,000 residential and small enterprise business internet customers versus 380,000 within the prior year quarter....
-
Italy have been crowned champions of the 2020 European Championship after defeating England 3-2 in penalties on Sunday night, July 11. ...
-
“Every improvement contributing to your outstanding experience is our daily motivation.” - Remitano Every product and feature on the Rem...
-
For the quarter, added 537,000 residential and small enterprise business internet customers versus 380,000 within the prior year quarter....
-
SMS marketing is a marketing channel which allows businesses to message customers with marketing messages through SMS, or more commonly kn...
-
Breaking news about iceland country incredible but true if you are interested read the full story iceland team was able to achieve an ...
-
Happy New Month Nigeria! Welcome to the month of June. As the world searches for a respite from all its troubles since 2020 began, one can ...
-
An Israeli professor has claimed that coronavirus will disappear after 70 days with or without intervention. The unproven claims were ma...
-
The Remitano founding team has always maintained the belief and vision that blockchain and cryptocurrencies are a big step forward for s...
-
Would you believe it if someone tells you that cayenne pepper has the power to stop a heart attack within a minute? Believe it or not, thi...
-
Apparently, ginger, a well-known spice we frequently add to different dishes to enhance the flavor, has the power to prevent cancer. But, i...
- bitcoin
- bitcoin mining
- Coronavirus
- dr anu nigeria
- coronavirus china
- Benefit Of Ginger Water
- Bobrisky
- Buhari
- coronavirus cure
- benefits of drinking milk
- Biafran War
- coronavirus death rate
- coronavirus outbreak
- dede one day mansion
- coronavirus update
- History of Biafra
- How To Make Ginger Water
- eri
- How to save your phone battery
- is 5g dangerous
- Kobe Bryant
- Jennifer Aniston
- kobe bryant family
- latest nigeria news paper
- kobe bryant wife
- latest on nigeria news
- naija news
- Malignant mesothelioma
- nigeria news
- Mesothelioma survival rates
- newspaper online in nigeria
- nigeria news breaking
- nigeria news headline today
- nigeria news of the day
- nigeria news paper online
- nigeria newspaper
- nigeria news paper today
- nigeria news today & breaking
- nigeria newspaper online
- nigerianewspaper
- nigeria newspapers
- Regina Daniels
- online dating scams
- Side Effects Of Eating Corn
- t mobile data usage
- online nigeria news
- what is tiger nut
- tiger nuts
- Tyson Fury
0 comments:
Post a Comment