The assassinated Nigerian seminarian was killed for announcing the gospel, says the murderer

A man who claims to have killed the assassinated Nigerian seminarian Michael Nnadi released an interview in which he claims to have executed the would-be priest because he would not have stopped announcing the Christian Faith in captivity.

Mustapha Mohammed, who is currently in prison, gave a telephone interview with the Nigerian newspaper Daily Sun on Friday. He took responsibility for the murder, according to the Daily Sun, because Nnadi, 18, "continued to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ" to his captors.

According to the newspaper, Mustapha praised Nnadi's "exceptional courage" and that the seminarian "told him to change his evil ways or die".

Nnadi was kidnapped by gunmen from the Kaduna Good Shepherd Seminary on January 8, along with three other students. The seminar, which hosts around 270 seminarians, is located just off the Abuja-Kaduna-Zaria Express road. According to AFP, the area is "known for the criminal gangs who kidnap travelers for ransom".

Mustapha, 26, identified himself as the leader of a 45-member gang who preyed on the highway. He released the interview from a prison in Abuja, Nigeria, where he is in police custody.

On the evening of the kidnapping, armed men disguised as military camouflage broke through the fence surrounding the seminarians' house and opened fire. They stole laptops and phones before kidnapping the four young men.

Ten days after the kidnapping, one of the four seminarians was found on the side of a road, alive but seriously injured. On January 31, a Good Shepherd Seminary official announced that two other seminarians had been released, but that Nnadi was missing and presumed he was still a prisoner.

On February 1, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of the diocese of Sokoto, Nigeria, announced that Nnadi had been killed.

"With a very heavy heart, I want to inform you that our dear son, Michael, was murdered by the bandits on a date that we cannot confirm," said the bishop, confirming that the seminary rector had identified Nnadi's body.

The newspaper reported that "from the first day Nnadi was kidnapped along with three of his other colleagues, he has not allowed [Mustapha] to have peace," because he insisted on announcing the gospel to him.

According to the newspaper, Mustapha "did not like the confidence shown by the young man and decided to send him to a grave."

According to the Daily Sun, Mustapha targeted the seminar knowing that it was a center for training priests and that a member of the gang who lived nearby had helped conduct surveillance before the attack. Mohammed believed it would be a profitable target for theft and redemption.

Mohammed also said that the gang used Nnadi's cell phone to file their ransom demands, asking for more than $ 250.000, subsequently reduced to $ 25.000, to secure the release of the three surviving students, Pius Kanwai, 19; Peter Umenukor, 23 years old; and Stephen Amos, 23 years old.

The murder of Nnadi is part of a series of attacks and killings of Christians in the country in recent months.

Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Abuja invited Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari to address the violence and kidnappings in a homily on March 1 in a mass with the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria.

“We must have access to our leaders; president, vice president. We have to work together to eradicate poverty, killings, bad governance and all sorts of challenges that we face as a nation, "said Kaigama.

In an Ash Wednesday letter to Nigerian Catholics, Archbishop Augustine Obiora Akubeze of the city of Benin invited Catholics to dress in black in solidarity with the victims and pray, in response to Boko's "repeated" executions of Christians Haram and "incessant" kidnappings "linked to the same groups".

Other Christian villages have been attacked, farms set on fire, vehicles carrying attacked Christians, men and women have been killed and kidnapped, and women have been taken as sex slaves and tortured - a "model", he said, to target Christians.

On February 27, the American ambassador to Large for Religious Freedom Sam Brownback told CNA that the situation in Nigeria was deteriorating.

"There are many people who are killed in Nigeria, and we fear that it will spread widely in that region," he told CNA. "He's one who really appeared on my radar screens - in the past two years, but particularly last year."

“I think we need to give the government [Nigerian President Muhammadu] Buhari more inspiration. They can do more, "he said. “They are not bringing these people who are killing religious followers to justice. They don't seem to have the urgency to act. "