Nigerian priest freed after torture; hospitalized with deep wounds on his head

Father Marcellus Nwaohuocha of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, who was kidnapped on June 17 from Nigeria’s Jos Archdiocese, has been freed.

Nwaohuocha was kidnapped when unidentified gunmen stormed St. Paul Bomo Parish in the Archdiocese of Jos, where he serves as a parish priest.The kidnappers shot the parish security guard, who died on the way to the hospital.

The kidnapping and release of Nwaohuocha is the latest in a series of abductions that have targeted members of the clergy, seminarians, and other Christians in Africa’s most populous nation.