Gunmen have shot dead a Catholic priest, Rev. Fr. Mathew Eya, in the Eha-Ndiagu community of Eha-Alumonah, Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State.
Eya, who was the parish priest of St. Charles Catholic Church, was killed on Friday evening while returning from Enugu.
Sources who spoke with Daily Post said the assailants, who rode on a motorcycle, intercepted his vehicle near the site of an ongoing Type C hospital project.
The attackers reportedly shot at the tyres to force the vehicle to a halt before firing multiple shots at him at close range.
While some accounts linked the incident to kidnapping, others suggested it was more of an assassination, as the priest was alone in his car and no abduction occurred.
A community source said, “He was coming back from Enugu. The gunmen on a motorbike closed in on him close to where the Type C hospital project is ongoing.
“They demobilised the vehicle tyres and the vehicle was forced to a stop. They then got close and shot him several times at close range. So, it doesn’t look like a kidnapping situation.”
The late cleric was a native of Ugbaike in Enugu Ezike, Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area. His death has thrown the Nsukka Catholic community into mourning.
As of press time, neither the police nor the Catholic Diocese of Nsukka had issued an official statement on the killing.
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