Insecurity in Anambra State has worsened with the recent murder of Reverend Father Tobias Chukwujekwu Okonkwo by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, December 26, 2024.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that the incident occurred between 7 pm and 8 pm along the Onitsha-Owerri Expressway in Ihiala, Ihiala local government area of the state.
According to the Chancellor of the Nnewi Catholic Diocese, Reverend Father Raphael Ezeogu, the slain priest was a pharmacist and manager of the Respective School of Nursing, Midwifery, and Medical Laboratory at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Ihiala.
“We solicit your prayers and Holy Masses for his (Rev. Fr. Tobias Chukwujekwu Okonkwo’s) eternal joy. May Fr. Tobias rejoice in Paradise forever, Amen.
“Funeral arrangements will be announced in due course,” Ezeogu stated in the statement.
The development follows the kidnap of a 75-year-old retired Anglican Archbishop of Nnewi Anglican Diocese, Most Reverend Godwin Okpala, two weeks ago in Nnewi. Additionally, the lawmaker, representing Onitsha North Constituency 1 in the House of Assembly, Mr Justice Azuka, was on Christmas eve kidnapped.