By Godwin-Maria Utuedoye
Terrorists operating in Kaduna has again murdered a Catholic Seminarian when they burnt down the parish rectory of Saint Raphael’s Catholic Church under Kafanchan Diocese in Zangon Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State, suffocating a seminarian, Stephen Danlami to death.
The marauders said to be in their large numbers stormed the Saint Raphael Parish at Fadan Kamantan, on Thursday night, setting the building ablaze alongside a vehicle parked in the premises.
The late seminarian, Stephen Danlami, reportedly died from the smoke he inhaled while groping to escape from the raging fire.
The parish priest inside the parish house was said to have successfully escaped.
Shortly after the incident, police authorities in the state said it had launched a manhunt for the assailants.
The spokesman of the Kaduna State Police Command, Manir Hassan said the bandits stormed the worship centre in droves.
According to him, while the assailants could not enter the main building, they set the house on fire alongside a motorcycle and vehicle parked in the premises.
The police spokesman corroborated eyewitness accounts that the victim died due to the smoke he inhaled while trying to escape from the burning building.
An eye witness said; “the terrorists stormed the church in droves, adding that when they could not gain access to the main building, they set the house ablaze alongside a vehicle and motorcycle parked on the premises”.
Recalled that Nnadi Michael of the Catholic Good Shepherd Major Seminary at Gonin Gora, Kakau in Chikun LGA of Kaduna State, Nigeria, who was kidnapped in January 9, 2020, was murdered in cold blood and the three released on 31st January, 2020, having obtained a ransom. Several Catholic priests have also been murdered in a horrible manners in the Northern part of Nigeria.