Pecohub A priest was killed in an ambush on a road in Nigeria.
He was shot dead on the evening of September 19 on the Eha-Alumonah–Eha-Ndiagu road, in the Nsukka local government area of Enugu State, southeastern Nigeria.
According to reports collected by the local press, Fr. Eya, parish priest of St. Charles Church in Eha-Ndiagu, was the victim of a full-blown ambush.
The priest was returning to the parish when at least two armed men on a motorcycle caught up with his car, shooting at the tires and forcing him to stop. Once the car stopped, the killers shot him several times at close range.
If the witnesses’ accounts are correct, this was not a kidnapping attempt gone wrong, but a true targeted assassination.
The news was confirmed by Msgr. Cajetan Iyidobi, Chancellor of the Diocese of Nsukka, in a message to the faithful: “Deeply shocked, with pain and sadness, but in total submission to the will of Almighty God and with firm hope in the resurrection of the dead, I inform you of the tragic death of another of our brothers, Fr. Matthew Eya.”
The police launched an investigation to find Fr. Eya’s killers and arrested 38 people suspected of being responsible for the murder. The Enugu State government has offered a reward of 10 million naira (approximately €5,700) for the arrest of the priest’s killers.
