Rev. Fr. John Inalegwu Otache becomes the second priest kidnapped from St. Margaret’s Parish in just over three years, underscoring a rising pattern of clergy abductions and killings across Benue and the wider Middle Belt.
By Mike Odeh James
OTUKPO, Nigeria — Gunmen have abducted a Catholic priest in Nigeria’s Benue State, the second parish priest seized from the same parish in just over three years and the latest clergyman targeted across the country’s embattled Middle Belt. Rev. Fr. John Inalegwu Otache, parish priest of St. Margaret’s Parish, Ajegbe-Awume, was taken on Tuesday, October 13, on the Otobi Amejo-Ajegbe road in Ohimini County. He was returning from Otukpo when he was intercepted, the diocese said.
Police confirmed the abduction on Friday. No group has claimed responsibility, and no ransom demand has been made public.
Clergymen in Benue and the wider Middle Belt now work under mounting danger, mainly from Fulani Ethnic Militia (FEM), who carry out most of the abductions and killings in the region. At least seven clergy have been kidnapped or killed in Benue alone since January 2023, and at least 20 have been killed across the region in the same period, according to a rights monitor and a TruthNigeria review of press reports.
A Diocese in Prayer
“It is with great sadness that we write to notify you of the kidnap of one of our priests, Rev. Fr. John Inalegwu Otache,” the Catholic Diocese of Otukpo said in an October 15 circular signed by its chancellor, Rev. Fr. Joseph Aboyi Itodo.
Bishop Michael Ekwoyi Apochi is “deeply pained,” it said, and has asked the faithful and “all people of goodwill” to pray for Otache’s quick and safe release.
For St. Margaret’s, the ordeal is familiar. Its then parish priest, Rev. Fr. Anthony Adikwu, was snatched from the parish residence on the night of June 15, 2023, and freed six days later.
Senator Abba Moro, who represents Benue South, said he was gravely concerned and urged the abductors to free the priest. His statement did not identify them.
A Clergy Under Siege
Otache’s captors remain unidentified. But Ohimini has seen repeated FEM assaults on Christian farming communities, and the militia is behind most attacks on clergy across Benue.
On November 3, 2025, FEM gunmen killed Pastor Simon Nbach of Flaming Fire Ministry in Anwule, Oglewu. Residents said Adoya Ejigai and Ejeh Loko died with him in the fields before troops from the Army’s Forward Operating Base in Otukpo intervened. Early reports put the day’s toll as high as 10.
“No authoritative count exists,” said David Onyilokwu Idah, a director at the International Human Rights Commission in Abuja, who has compiled published cases. “The real numbers are almost certainly higher, as abductions of rural pastors, particularly from small Pentecostal and indigenous churches, are rarely reported nationally.”
His tally shows at least seven Benue clergy kidnapped or killed since January 2023. Four were abducted: Catholic priests Adikwu and Otache, and Protestant pastors Rev. Gideon Haanongon, then Ukum County’s caretaker chairman, rescued by troops in January 2024 after two weeks in captivity, and Rev. Dr. Samuel Gbinde of the NKST church in Guma County.
FEM gunmen stormed Gbinde’s home on June 30, 2026, taking him and two congregants. He died days after a ransomed release, Idah said, from injuries suffered in captivity.
Three others were killed outright: Nbach; Pastor Mrs. Menu Ojiji, in January 2026; and Ngbede Okpe Agabaidu, a resident of Edikwu Icho described by several outlets as a pastor, shot dead during a February 22, 2026, FEM attack on Apa communities.
Idah stresses that these figures are a floor and that the toll is higher in other Middle Belt states, including Kaduna, Plateau, Taraba, Nasarawa and Adamawa.
A Regional Toll
A TruthNigeria review of press reports counts at least 20 clergy killed in the Middle Belt between January 2023 and October 2026, or 22 including a seminarian and a religious brother. Records for 2024 and 2025 are likely incomplete.
2023 was the deadliest year, with 10 victims. Fr. Isaac Achi was burned to death in his Kafin-Koro residence, Niger State, on January 15; Pastor Musa Hyok Mang was shot at home in Ganawuri, Plateau, on March 3; and ECWA pastors Musa Mairimi and Daniel Danbeki were among those slain. Seminarian Na’aman Danlami died when the Fadan Kamantan rectory in Kaduna was torched on September 7, and Benedictine Brother Godwin Eze was killed after his abduction from a monastery in Eruku, Kwara.
Two clergy were killed in 2024: Rev. Manasseh Ibrahim, shot in Kaduna on April 23, and Pastor Clement Anthony, gunned down at home in Taraba on December 6. In 2025, three died: Fr. Sylvester Okechukwu, killed after his abduction in Kaduna on March 4; Nbach in Benue; and an Anglican priest surnamed Achi, killed after 30 days in captivity in Chikun, Kaduna.
In 2026, seven have been killed, among them Rev. Bulus Madaki, slain with his family in Barkin Ladi, Plateau, on January 16; Rev. Markus Nyam, in Bokkos on June 22; and Baptist minister Rev. Andy Samuel, 53, in Barkin Ladi on September 20.
Watched From Abroad
Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List, covering October 1, 2024, to September 30, 2025, found that 3,490 of the 4,849 Christians killed for their faith worldwide died in Nigeria. In June 2025, FEM gunmen massacred displaced families sheltering in Yelwata, Guma County.
In Washington, President Donald Trump redesignated Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern under U.S. religious freedom law on October 31, 2025. On Christmas Day, U.S. Africa Command struck Islamic State camps in Sokoto State alongside Nigerian forces.
In Europe, Hungary has been the loudest voice, sending emergency aid after Yelwata through its Hungary Helps program, while Open Doors’ figures shape debate in London and Brussels.
Abuja rejects that picture. “The characterization of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality,” President Bola Tinubu said in November 2025.
For the faithful of Ajegbe-Awume, the diplomacy feels distant. Their priest is still held somewhere in the bush, and their parish has now seen two priests seized by kidnappers since June 2023.
Mike Odeh James is an award-winning journalist and a senior reporter for TruthNigeria.
