The Rev. John Mark Cheitnum was director of communications of the Catholic Diocese of Kafanchan. Kidnapped at gunpoint from the parish rectory of Christ the King Catholic Church in Yalding Garu, Lere County along with the Rev. Donatus Cleopas Sulaiman, Cheitnum was killed while Sulaiman was able to escape, according to the Kafanchan diocese.

“The Rev. Fr. Donatus Cleophas escaped from his abductors and has reunited with us,” said the Rev. Emmanuel Uchechukwu Okolo, chancellor of the Catholic Diocese of Kafanchan, in a press statement. “However, it is with a deep sense of sorrow and pain that the bishop, clergy and laity of the Diocese of Kafanchan announce the gruesome murder of Very Rev. Fr. John Mark Cheitnum.”

The Kaduna state chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), the Rev. John Joseph Hayab, said Cheitnum had served as the CAN chairman of the Jema’a Local Government Area as well Southern Kaduna CAN coordinator.

Source: christianpost.com

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