A dear friend was beside herself throughout Sunday, January 15, 2023. She kept asking to no one in particular: why should anybody do this to Fr. Achi? What could he have done to anyone to deserve this? Where were the numerous people – Muslims and Christians – that he spent himself catering for when this happened? As a priest, he had no biological offspring, so who will accuse him of coveting any worldly thing? The questions were many. So was the agony palpable. Of course, there was no answer in the offing.
In Nigeria, more so in the last eight odd years, such tragic incidents as triggered the above questions rarely, if ever, find an answer. Human life has become easily expendable in present-day Nigeria. Shedding of innocent blood will be recorded, sadly but factually, as having become routine under the watch of the present government. Almost always, the criminals who wantonly waste precious lives of citizens, under all manner of guises, never get caught. The system and all the overbearing apparatuses of state security never manage to get ahead, or catch up with the despoilers of the innocent in the society.
In the early hours of Sunday, January 15, 2023, Reverend Father Isaac Achikpili Achi, a Catholic priest, another Catholic priest, was killed in a most grisly manner inside his house at St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, Kafin-Koro, Niger State.
As was the case with my friend who was benumbed by the incident, Rev. Fr. Achi’s gruesome murder hit many beyond the fold of the Catholic Church with devasted shock. It was sad enough that the highly regarded priest was killed. To have burnt him to ashes inside the priory was a crime that heaven will definitely avenge.
Rev. Fr. Achi hailed from Kafin-Koro in Paikoro Local Government Area of Niger State. He had served in his home parish over time, but was said to have been posted out to the parish at Madalla, Suleja, recently. He was yet to relocate. Fr. Achi had indeed lived the life of a saint. Testimonies abound. He catered for humanity as one beyond the flock of his faith. He provided water for the community. He offered succour to the needy in various forms. He promoted education to as many as came his way and showed the desire to be assisted. He was a peacemaker.
On Sunday, January 15, Rev. Fr. Achi joined the long queue of recent martyrs in Nigeria, who, like their predecessors over the years, lost their lives for no other reason but the blind hate of evil elements who found dark joy in destroying innocent lives, holding firmly to their faith and the passion of their calling. Fr. Achi’s killers could not have been kidnappers or the run-of-the-mill bandits that are presently ravaging Nigeria, driven essentially by economic motives, criminal though they remain.
The murderers of God’s servant at Kafin-Koro on Sunday, January 15, 2023, were outright evil elements, vicious faces of the antichrist. They did not go to St. Peter and Paul Catholic Church, Kafin-Koro, to steal or plunder. They went there to eliminate the resident clergymen. And they had their way. They burnt the priest to ashes inside his own house and shot the assistant priest, also with an intent to kill. Being a younger man, apparently, he managed to escape with serious gunshot wounds.
For a man known to have dedicated his life to serving his local community of Kafin-Koro and its environs, providing them essential social amenities through his personal efforts, Fr. Achi did not hold back from his community anything he could give to uplift their wellbeing. His blood will forever cry out against his killers, even as their lives are already headed to perdition.
The killing of Fr. Achi is the latest in what arguably is a cold, dastardly designed onslaught on the church. Make no mistakes about it. On June 28, 2022, this column had, under the title, Escalating Assault on the Church, written thus: “There may be terror and violence all over the place, quite alright, but there are bases to believe there is method and purpose in the madness. The picking and killing of Christians and Christian clergymen in Kaduna and in various parts of the country have become too pointed and regular to pass as random handiwork of rogues. The Catholic Church in particular has become the prime target in recent times. In a matter of about 24 hours last weekend, the Church lost two priests, killed in their prime, in separate locations, by the euphemistically-tagged bandits. By whatever name the terrorists and murderers come, they are, without doubt, antichrist. Catholic clergymen have never been known for being rich in material possession.”
In the case of Rev. Fr. Achi, he had stretched himself to cater for both Christians and non-Christians, Catholics and non-Catholics. So, what could be the reason for anyone killing him and in such a grisly manner too, if not for hate against his faith?
Remarkably, the last attack that claimed Fr. Achi’s life in the horrendous execution by the evil men that took his life was not the first or second time he had faced death. He had reportedly had several confrontations with evil men. He had prevailed in the previous instances. In one of the earlier encounters, he had been directly attacked, seemingly by armed robbers. He reportedly lost some teeth in the incident. He survived it and moved on, undeterred in his service to God and man with his calling as a faithful servant of God.
Many Nigerians will easily remember the twin bombing at St. Theresa Catholic Church, Madalla, Suleja, Niger State, on Christmas Day in 2011. The crime claimed 44 lives, with 75 wounded. The prime figure in that Christmas Day shattering terrorist attack, recall, was one Kabir Abubakar Dikko, otherwise known as Kabir Umar, a.k.a Kabir Sokoto, of the Boko Haram sect. Sokoto, was arrested at the Borno State Government guest house in Asokoro, Abuja. Kashim Shettima, vice presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), was governor of Borno State then. Goodluck Jonathan was President.
Yes, Rev. Fr. Achi was there as a celebrant of the Mass at St. Theresa Catholic Church, Madalla. He survived it. Indeed, he was billed to return to Madalla. He had already been posted back there. Then his painful exist. It is not all about him.
To imagine that, less than a fortnight ago, President Muhammadu Buhari was assuring the delegation of Catholic bishops of better security. President Buhari assured the bishops who paid him a farewell courtesy visit that he would leave Nigeria in a better shape, security-wise, before exiting in barely four months. What now does Buhari tell the bishops with Rev. Fr. Achi’s assassination, a manifestation of continued prevalence of insecurity, with the expected inevitability of failure to locate the killers? And how will the bishops be feeling, seeing now that in the wake of their visit the lot of the church they lead remains dire, as has been?