{"id":79625,"date":"2025-12-03T09:34:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T09:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=79625"},"modified":"2025-12-03T09:34:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T09:34:23","slug":"zaria-diocese-confirms-abduction-of-catholic-priest-calls-for-prayers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/12\/03\/zaria-diocese-confirms-abduction-of-catholic-priest-calls-for-prayers\/","title":{"rendered":"Zaria Diocese Confirms Abduction of Catholic Priest, Calls for Prayers"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Onilede Titi Faith<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Catholic Diocese of Zaria has confirmed the abduction of one of its priests, Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Ezema, who was taken from the parish house of St. Peter\u2019s Catholic Church, Rumi, late Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

In a circular dated December 3, 2025, and signed by the Diocesan Chancellor, Rev. Fr. Isak Augustine, the Diocese said Fr. Ezema was abducted at about 11:30 p.m. on December 2.<\/p>\n

The notice, made available to this newsroom, described the incident as an abduction and urged the faithful and the general public to pray for the priest\u2019s safe release.<\/p>\n

Diocesan sources told this paper that the alarm was raised after the priest failed to respond to calls and was not found in his residence.<\/p>\n

The Diocese also released a photograph of Fr. Ezema to aid public awareness.<\/p>\n

While calling for prayers for the abducted priest and \u201cothers in similar danger,\u201d the Diocese invoked the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, appealing for divine protection and a swift rescue.<\/p>\n

As of press time, neither the Kaduna State Police Command nor federal security agencies had issued a statement confirming the abduction or providing details about possible suspects.<\/p>\n

Efforts to obtain official comments were still underway.<\/p>\n

Kidnappings involving priests and religious workers have continued to heighten insecurity concerns across parts of Nigeria, with dioceses often relying on public appeals and prayer campaigns during such incidents.<\/p>\n

In its circular, the Diocese stated: \u201cWe regret to officially announce the abduction of our Priest, Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Ezema, in his residence at St. Peter\u2019s Catholic Church, Rumi, on Tuesday, 2nd December 2025, around 11:30 p.m. We call on all men and women of goodwill to pray for the safe and quick release of our Priest and others from the hands of their abductors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Security agencies are yet to comment publicly, and the Diocese has urged anyone with relevant information to assist authorities in efforts to secure the priest\u2019s release.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Onilede Titi Faith The Catholic Diocese of Zaria has confirmed the abduction of one of its priests, Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Ezema, who was taken from the parish house of St. Peter\u2019s Catholic Church, Rumi, late Tuesday night. In a circular dated December 3, 2025, and signed by the Diocesan Chancellor, Rev. Fr. Isak Augustine, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":79627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1724,172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-insecurity","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79625"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79628,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79625\/revisions\/79628"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}