Three days after Vincentia Nwankwo and Grace Okoli, two reverend sisters of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM), Onitsha, Anambra, went missing, nothing has been heard from them.
FIJ confirmed from an insider at the IHM on Friday that they are concerned about a possible kidnapping but abductors were yet to make contact with the mission to demand ransom or discuss the sisters’ whereabouts.
The insider said that this has provided the mission with no leads on the situation.
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“No lead, as regards this particular situation, we have chosen to be off everything, interrogation or discussion but to keep praying. We are just praying,” an insider who answered FIJ’s call on Friday said.
“Actually, I do not know, but I know that messages are going underground. I don’t know where we are. We are in the hands of God.”
When FIJ inquired how the mission confirmed the sisters’ abduction since there were no leads, the insider said that all she knows is that they had not been reachable, an indicator that something had happened.
“Everything about this matter in question now, I do not know any details. What I know is that they went out and did not return. Whoever went out and did not return, you will know that something has happened, and you can’t reach them,” she said.
Tochukwu Ikenga, the Anambra State Police Command spokesperson, simply said, “Investigation is ongoing”, in response to FIJ’s enquiry
On Tuesday, the IHM, in a statement circulated on X, announced that the sisters were kidnapped on Ufuma Road on Tuesday evening while returning from a Vocational Association in Ogboji, another community in Orumba North Local Government in the state.
A signed statement from the IHM as seen on X.
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“With sadness, we write to inform the general public of the kidnap of our two sisters, Vincentia Maria Nwankwo and Grace Mariette Okoli, yesterday evening, Tuesday 7th January 2025,” the statement reads in part.
“Sr. Vincentia Maria is the Principal of Archbishop Charles Heerey Memorial Model Secondary School, Ufuma and Sr. Grace Mariette, a teacher at Immaculata Girls Model Secondary School, Nnewi. They were kidnapped along Ufuma road on their way back from their Vocational Association’s meeting at Ogboji.”
A similar incident occurred in Edo State on October 27, when Thomas Oyode, a Reverend Father and rector of the Immaculate Conception Minor Seminary, Ivhianokpodi, Agenebode, was kidnapped.
FIJ reported that the Reverend Father, alongside other priests and seminarians, had been praying when the kidnappers attacked them.
The clergyman was released by his captors after 10 days in Kogi State. They had demanded N200 million for his release.
The post Anambra Reverend Sisters Missing, Colleagues Fear Abduction appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.