Tucson’s Nigerian priests haunted by violent attacks, murders back home
Father Samuel Jandeh, pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Superior, was angry, scared and frustrated, but mostly angry.
He and two other Nigerian priests serving in the Diocese of Tucson were talking about the murder of their friends, Fathers Joseph Gor and Felix Tyolaha, and the more than a dozen parishioners at St. Ignatius Church in Mbalom, of the Benue state. The murders occurred following Mass April 24.
Father Jandeh said that reports from social media indicated that Mass had just finished, and Father Joseph was headed to his car when he and others were ambushed by Fulani herdsmen. He was shot but able to warn the others, including Father Felix, to try to escape.
Media reports say that the Fulani attacks began about six years ago when the herdsmen, identified as Muslims, began grazing their cattle in the fields of farmers, predominantly Christians, residing in the central state, one of the most fertile areas in Africa. It has led to attacks by the herdsmen upon farmers, resulting in areas being abandoned as residents flee from farms they have inhabited for generations.
“Father Felix was running for his life, when he saw some women struggling to run away. He went back to encourage them to run. They pointed to a young boy who had fallen behind. Father Felix went back to pick up the boy and carry him. When the women looked back, they did not see him. The herdsmen had shot him and slit his throat. The boy was also killed,” Father Jandeh said.
Father Jandeh and Father Richard Kusugh, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Parker, are members of Via Christi, a society of apostolic life indigenous to the Diocese of Makurdi, Nigeria. Father John Ikponko is a priest from the Makurdi Diocese who served as chancellor before coming to Tucson in 2017.
Father Ikponko said that Father Felix had served in a mission church in Yogboh. The church had been destroyed earlier this year and its members displaced by Fulani attacks, so Father Felix had been working as a “supply” priest, helping Father Joseph at St. Ignatius.
On New Year’s Day, Fulani coordinated attacks killed six dozen in six Benue communities. “They are just killing people, a rampage, and burn their houses before they return to hiding,” said Father Jandeh.
Father Kusugh said that the conflict is confusing because it is influenced in part by jihadism and by economic interests. There are also tribal tensions, with the Fulani reacting to a recent anti-open grazing law.
“How do they get away with it?
It seems the federal government is giving them protection,” he said. “To see this happening in 2018 defies human logic.” “The government there is just not willing to enforce the law. They are just letting this happen,” he added. “It just doesn’t make sense.”
Other news reports note that while Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has pledged to send in troops to locate and arrest the killers, he is politically linked to the herdsmen.
Father Jandeh said that federal troops only arrive after the Fulani have returned to hiding or fled to other states, and do not maintain a presence in Benue despite the ongoing raids.
“The president is an imam (a Muslim leader). He’s also a patron for the ranchers,” the priest added. “It’s the government’s job to provide security for its citizens. It’s not doing that,” said Father Ikponko.
For the three priests in Tucson, these attacks shake them to the core. “I feel helpless. Our families are under siege,” said Father Kusugh. He also said he feels guilty that he cannot be there with his family and the community where he grew up in Makurdi. “It’s all those things rolled up in one.” “I feel angry, frustrated, devastated and helpless,” added Father Jandeh.
Father Ikponko said he wants to be able to help, but it’s not clear what he can do. “I am praying. I want to speak out any way I can, so the international community can help.”
Father Kusugh visited Nigeria last June for a general meeting of the Via Christi Society and renewed his friendship with Father Joseph. Father Kusugh recalled suffering from severe back pain, which his friend noticed and massaged his back every day. By the time the meeting was over, the treatments had worked and he was able to move around without pain, Father Kusugh said. “This was not an isolated case,” Father Kusugh said. “He lived his life for other people.”
Following Father Joseph’s ordination in 2013, people sought him out for spiritual guidance, Father Kusugh said. “At a previous parish, you would see people standing in line just to see him.” “For him to die such a gruesome death …” he started, but not completing the thought. Father Jandeh said that even though there appears to be little reason to think things will change, they must have hope. As their families and friends live so far away, they can’t help but think about what they are going through. “We are here because we once had a home there.”
It’s not just the farming communities that are being hit by Fulani raids. Father Kusugh’s family lives in Makurdi, Benue’s capital. Last Jan. 13, there was a riot that left one person dead and cars and buildings destroyed. Father Kusugh’s father and siblings were forced to flee to one room with the family dog as looters ransacked the home. “To this day, I don’t know why the dog did not bark,” he recalled. “If he had, I would have had to take a leave of absence to go home and bury my family.”
Father Jandeh had a similar story, having spent three years earlier in his ministry at a parish that serviced the church in Mbalom. “It could have been me that morning,” said the priest, who has been having ongoing nightmares resulting from the reports of the violence.
Father Ikponko, a native of the village Father Felix fled, said his death has affected him profoundly. Father Kusugh knows that his parishioners here need him, but at the same time, he feels “survivors’ guilt.”
“Sometimes, I feel like maybe people here don’t care,” he said. “Don’t people here care that you have a home, even if it is in Africa? Don’t they care what you are going through?”
There hasn’t been much published or broadcast about the Nigerian church massacre in the US or Arizona media, so most of his parishioners are not aware of the impact it has on the Nigerian priests serving in the Diocese of Tucson.
“Some people may think, ‘Oh, it’s over there. We are sure he’s doing OK,’” he said, adding that it helps to keep in contact with Fathers Jandeh, Ikponko and other priests from the area for support and information. “That way, I don’t have to deal with it alone.”
Editor’s note: To raise concern about the violence in Nigeria, please call the offices of US Sens. John McCain (520) 670-6334 and Jeff Flake (520) 575-8633.
By MICHAEL BROWN
Managing Editor
