The leader of a kidnap gang, known as Mustapha Mohammed aka Mairutuwa, has given a reason for killing Catholic seminarian, Michael Nnadi, from the Good Shepherd Major Seminary in Kaduna state. The incident occurred in January 2020, despite receiving a ransom from the seminary school.
On January 9, armed men abducted four seminarians, killing one and releasing the others on January 31 after obtaining a ransom. The body of the fourth seminarian, 18-year-old Michael Nnadi, was discovered in a bush on February 2nd and he was laid to rest on February 11th.
In an interview with The Sun, Mustapha claimed that from the day Nnadi was abducted, he continued to preach the gospel of Jesus to him and urged him to change his ways. He expressed dissatisfaction with Nnadi’s confidence and decision to preach about Jesus despite their different faiths, leading him to decide to kill him.
Mustapha, currently in police custody with two other gang members, revealed that they targeted the school for its potential to yield a good profit and learned about it from a gang member who resides close to the school. He mentioned that they conducted extensive surveillance on the school for about five days before carrying out the operation.
He also disclosed how they used Nnadi’s phone to contact the school authorities and demand a ransom, eventually obtaining N10 million for the release of the other three seminarians. Additionally, Mustapha detailed how they coerced the school authorities to buy N30,000 worth of recharge cards for various mobile networks, which were delivered to the designated ransom collection spot.