“With deep sadness and sorrow in our hearts, we wish to inform you of the death of one of our priests in the Archdiocese, Rev. Fr. Charles Onomhoale Igechi….With great shock we received the news. . . that he was shot on his way back to his place of assignment, on the 7th of June, 2023 and his remains were found by Boundary Street in Ikpoba Hill, Ikpoba Okha Local Government Area, Edo State,” announced Archbishop Augustine Akubeze of Benin City.
The murdered priest had been recently ordained, as Bishop Akubeze recalls: “Fr. Charles Onomhoale Igechi, who was ordained a priest on August 13, 2022, was Vice-Principal of St. Michael’s College, Ikhueniro.”
“The relevant security agency has been informed and is currently working on this attack,” the Archbishop added. “We pray that the perpetrators of this malicious act are brought to justice.”
Bishop Akubeze has announced a Mass for Fr. Igechi on June 9, 2023, in the chapel of the Bishop Kelly Pastoral Center.
In other states in southern and southeastern Nigeria, at least three abductions of priests in roadside ambushes have been recorded in the past two months.
Militants no longer ambush a priest to kidnap him, but to kill him. The victim, Fr. Charles Onomhoale Igechi, a priest from the Archdiocese of Benin City in southern Nigeria, was killed on June 7 by gunmen on the road to Agbor, Ikpoba Local Government Area Okha, in Edo State.