Rev Fr. Isaac Achi: Survived 2011 Bombing That Killed 44 of His Parishioners. Burnt To Death 2 Weeks After Bandits Killed His nephew
“I’ve never cried before, but yesterday, I cried,” Rev. Father Isaac Azekpili Achi told congregants who had gathered at a service to mourn 44 members of the St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, Niger State, on December 26, 2011.
A day before then, on Christmas Day, Boko Haram terrorists had launched a coordinated attack on the church where he was the parish priest and other churches in Jos, Plateau State and Gadaka and Damaturu in Yobe State. No fewer than 50 worshippers died from the attacks on a day that has been described as ‘Nigeria’s darkest Christmas’.
One of the severely hit churches was St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, located 45 km from Presidential Villa, Abuja, Nigeria’s seat of power.
Achi was the Parish Priest of St. Theresa at the time of the attack. After surviving the attack, he was transferred to St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, Kafin Koro, Niger State, but 11 years after the attack, the Catholic Priest was burnt alive on Sunday, January 15 2023, in what many Nigerians and the international community have described as a targeted and continuous attack on the christian community in Nigeria.
Achi’s gruesome murder is also coming just eight days after his 27 years priesthood anniversary and two weeks after armed men killed his nephew, Oliver Umaru in Minna, in late December 2022.
Multiple reports say armed bandits invaded his residence, around 3 am on Sunday, January 15, 2023. After failed attempts to gain access into the building, they set it ablaze while he was inside. His assistant, Reverend Father Collins Omeh, who sustained a gunshot injury while trying to escape, was rushed to the hospital.
Ordained a Catholic Priest on January 7, 1995, Father Achi was transferred to Minna Archdiocese and moved around different parishes.
Through the 27 years of his service, Achi survived several attacks in North Central Nigeria that has witnessed an increase in terrorist attacks and kidnapping for ransom in the last decade.
Two years after his Parish at St Theresa was bombed, Achi was kidnapped and rescued by the police around Abuja after spending several days with his abductors in 2013. Still, in Madalla, a source reported that the Priest was shot in his jaw when he went to bless a child during a naming ceremony.
While Niger State has been ravaged by bandits, displacing over 151,000 people within two years, Sunday’s attack on Achi’s residence that left him dead appears to be a targeted attack, a source close to the family told Neusroom.
“I sincerely feel that it’s a targeted attack because he has a dream of fighting for God’s children,” Agabi Jacobs, a former classmate of Oliver Umaru, told Neusroom.
“I was a school son to his other brother Rev Fr Isaac Abbah when I was in the seminary at Christ the king seminary secondary school, Gwada, and a classmate and a best friend to his late younger brother Umaru.”
According to Jacobs, Umaru was killed by bandits in late December 2022, on his way back from the hospital with his father.
“Two weeks after bandits killed Umaru, they also killed Fr Isaac Achi. I feel there is a cartel around the family, an insider…. It is highly questionable.”
At St Theresa, Achi played a significant role in transforming St Theresa’s Catholic Nursery, Primary and Secondary School.
“I knew Father Achi when he was at St Theresa. He was a strict and workaholic Priest who contributed in kind and also moved the St Theresa Catholic School to a great level.”
Jacob’s account of the impactful life Father Achi lived is one out of many from the tributes posted on social media by Catholic church members and those who know Achi during his lifetime.
One social media user wrote:
I am still overwhelmed by all that you did for me and my family. I can’t forget how you surprisingly graced and celebrated my wedding mass at Ezinifite. You came all the way from Niger State to Anambra State. When I had my first child, you were there at Asaba, Delta State to pray and dedicate her to God Almighty.
Another user wrote: Just last week we were together going from one church to another for the universal CAN prayer unknowingly death is at the corner…. Dear Sir, You have fought a good fight.
Condemning the attack, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), in a statement on Sunday, in Minna, called on the government to investigate the death of Father Isaac Achi.
“One of the primary responsibilities of any government is to protect lives and properties of the people, enough of the attacks and wanton killings of innocent Nigeria citizens,” the statement read.
Wasiu Abiodun, the Niger State Police PRO told Neusroom that investigations are ongoing to apprehend the assailants who murdered Achi.
“We are still investigating the death of Father Achi Isaac. If there is any update, we will roll it out,” Abiodun said.
Achi’s killing is the latest in what many have described as targeted attacks on Catholic Priests across Nigeria, even as members of other faiths are not spared by terrorists.
In June 2022, terrorists attacked the St Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, killing more than 30 people, including women and children.
In May 2022, the Prelate of the Methodist Church Nigeria, Samuel Kanu-Uche, and two other ministers in his church reportedly paid N100 million as ransom before they were freed by their abductors.
Over the years, there have been significant cases of terror attacks in churches in Niger State where Christianity is the second largest religion.
In 2006, no fewer than nine churches were torched following a provocative caricature of Prophet Muhammad first published by a Danish newspaper. As Boko Haram terror attacks increased in Northern Nigeria between 2010 and 2014, churches in Niger State were rapidly targeted. On July 10, 2011, a bomb attack by Boko Haram terrorists at All Christian-Fellowship Mission in Suleja, Niger State, left three persons dead. Also, in February 2022, gunmen invaded a Baptist church in Gidigori in Rafi Local government Area of Niger State and abducted eight worshippers.
