Journalist and broadcaster Rufai Oseni has reacted strongly to the death of Anglican priest Venerable Edwin Achi in captivity, describing the murder as a targeted attack on his faith and a tragic example of Nigeria’s escalating insecurity.
Oseni highlighted the heartbreaking details of the abduction of the priest and his wife in Kaduna State. He alleged that despite the family successfully raising the ransom demanded by the kidnappers, the bandits instructed them to retrieve Venerable Achi’s decomposing body.
The broadcaster argued that the killing was religiously motivated, claiming it reflected a wider pattern of attacks:
“When Venerable Achi was kidnapped, they raised a ransom for him, it was after his family had paid the ransom that the bandits told them to go and pick up his decomposing body. Venerable Achi was killed for his faith, pure and simple. He was a clergyman, he was a man of the cloth.”
Oseni challenged those who deny the scale of such attacks:
“So when the propagandists start and say there’s no Christian genocide, me, I will tell them the truth.”
He also drew attention to the emotional devastation faced by the family, noting that the priest’s elderly mother, who is in her nineties, has still not been informed of her son’s death, emphasizing how insecurity continues to overwhelm families across the country. Oseni concluded:
“Nobody till now has been able to tell Venerable Achi’s mother that her son, who’s in his 60s, was killed after ransom was paid.”
