‘Herdsmen’ invade Catholic seminary, shoot priest

Less than one week after the Catholic Church across Nigeria led marches to protest the bloody attacks by Fulani herders, a seminary has been attacked in Jalingo, Taraba State. They reportedly shot Reverend Father Cornelius Kobah in the leg and beat up Fr. Stephen Bakari. According to a statement by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Atsue, the Rector of Sacred Heart Minor Seminary, Jalingo, armed Fulani herdsmen attacked the institution on Monday, May 28 about 12.30am. Clearing suspicion, the Rector, who made the statement with from Bishop Charles Hammawa of Jalingo Diocese, said the attackers’ conversation in Fulani language gave them away. “They shot sporadically at the Rector’s residence and broke the windscreen of one of the vehicles belonging to one of the priests,” he stated. The attacked may not be unconnected with the challenge on their grazing in the area. “From their conversation, we were able to understand that their grievance against us is that the security men in the seminary have been challenging their decision to graze right inside the seminary: around the classes, football field, laundry etc. “They said, even inside the church, if they see grass, their cows will graze,” the rector added. However, normalcy was said have been temporarily restored to the school by security operatives, and nobody missing. “All our students are complete; none is missing. Two of them, who were showing them the way to the Father’s house, suffered injuries from the sticks of the herdsmen. “I had a meeting with the officials of the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) and the bishop has equally approved one week break for the seminarians to enable them manage trauma for a while and to show themselves to their parents that they were safe,” the rector added. On Tuesday, May 22, two Catholic priests – Joseph Gor and Felix Tyolaha – who were brutally killed alongside a Catechist and 16 other parishioners of St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Ayar-Mbalom, a community in Benue State by suspected herdsmen four weeks before were buried amid protests across Nigeria. During the protests, the Church asked President Muhammadu Buhari to mandate security operatives to double their efforts in fighting insecurity in the country.]]>