Gruesome Sight As Catholic Priest Is Slaughtered In Church

Killers of Rev. Fr. Francis Chidiebele Okoye, a Catholic priest attached to St Mary’s Catholic Church, in Afikpo, Ebonyi State remain at large.

The big question that continues to linger in people’s minds is why anyone would have wanted to murder the clergyman.

On July 31, the seventh anniversary of the horrific murder will be marked. Fr. Okoye was slaughtered like a sacrificial lamb in the premises of the Church on July 31, 2006.

The priest, who hailed from Enugwu Ukwu, in Njikoka Local Government Area of Anambra State and shared an apartment within the Church premises with a fellow priest, was dragged out of his bedroom by his assailants, who took him to the back of the building and slashed his throat

“It was a shocking act of violence. It was a gory sight. There was no doubt that Father Chidiebele’s attackers came with the intention of killing him outright.“They butchered an innocent man like an animal. He was almost beheaded.

“This is the height of wickedness and man’s inhumanity to man,” one of the members of the church stated.