Latest Nigerian Priest Rescued Benue: Father Otache Freed After Five Days October 2026

For five days, the parish of St Margaret's in Ajegbe-Awume did not know if its priest was alive. Father John Inalegwu Otache had set out from Otukpo on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, when kidnappers seized him and seven others on the road home through Ohimini Local Government Area in Benue State. Two rescue operations later, police had brought every one of them home.

Otache, the parish priest of St Margaret's Church in Ajegbe-Awume, was held for five days, according to the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need. Officers of the Benue State Police Command, working with the Police Mobile Force and local civil protection guards, freed all eight captives and arrested two suspects, with rescues on October 16 and 18.

Police said the abduction happened at about 8:15 PM on October 13, on the road between Otukpo and Ajegbe-Awume. The road that had carried Otache to his parish for years suddenly became the place where his congregation's prayers turned urgent. Every family in Ajegbe-Awume understood at once what five days of silence could mean.

Father Otache Benue Rescue: Two Operations, Eight Lives

The rescue did not happen in a single moment. According to the Benue State police, the joint team launched a coordinated operation after the abduction was reported, and the victims were freed in two seperate batches: two people on Friday, October 16, and the remaining six, including Otache, on Sunday, October 18. All of the rescued victims were taken to a hospital in Otukpo for medical checks.

Local knowledge mattered, because the kidnappers had taken their captives into country where outsiders get lost, and the men who found them were men who knew the bush paths and villages of Ohimini. Two suspects were arrested in connection with the abduction, police said, and efforts were intensified to track down other fleeing members of the suspected gang.

The authorities have not publicly identified the kidnappers. For the families, the outcome mattered more: eight taken, eight brought back alive.

Otukpo Diocese Response: Hearts Full of Joy

The Catholic Diocese of Otukpo, where Otache serves, welcomed his return with thanksgiving and praised the prayers offered across the region. Diocesan chancellor the Reverend Joseph Itodo said in a statement that the diocese was announcing the news with hearts full of joy and thanksgiving to God. Bishop Michael Ekwoyi Apochi thanked all who had prayed for the priest and stood with him during his captivity.

Members of Otache's parish in Ajegbe-Awume had prayed and called for his safe return throughout the five days. Their priest had been taken from an ordinary journey, and they answered with the ordinary faithfulness of a praying parish. Itodo urged prayer for the many still held by criminal gangs elsewhere in Nigeria.

We pray that God will preserve us from all evil and restore sanity to our country Nigeria.

That prayer, spoken by Itodo on behalf of the diocese, has become familiar in Nigeria's Middle Belt. Benue State sits in the band of states between the mainly Muslim north and the mainly Christian south, with Makurdi as its capital and Otukpo as one of its main towns. It is a region where a journey home can end in captivity, as for the Orthodox Christians killed in the Oromia attack in Ethiopia and the Christians living with restricted Bible access around the world.

Nigeria Priest Kidnappings: A Pattern That Continues

Kidnapping for ransom by criminal gangs has increased in parts of Nigeria, and priests, seminarians, and lay Catholics have been taken in several regions. Another priest, the Reverend Emmanuel Ezema of the Diocese of Zaria, remains missing after armed men abducted him from his home in St Peter's Parish in Rumi, Kaduna State, on December 2, 2025, with no word of his release. His diocese asked for prayers for his return.

Other cases show both the danger and the possibility of freedom: in August, a seminarian abducted from the bishop's residence in Otukpo escaped his captors after more than two weeks, and in February, attackers abducted the Reverend Nathaniel Asuwaye from his parish in Kaduna State, though he regained his freedom in May. Each case leaves a parish counting the days until its priest comes home.

In July, Cardinal John Onaiyekan, the retired archbishop of Abuja, urged the Nigerian government to take steps to end the kidnappings and said authorities had no excuse for failing to protect the population. Church leaders across the country have echoed his call. The crisis is part of a wider African picture in the Intersociety report on 7,500 Christians killed across Africa in 2026, which found Nigeria accounted for the largest share of the deaths it recorded.

What Comes Next for Father Otache and His Parish

Otache is back with the parish that prayed him home, for rest and medical care. What his return means for St Margaret's will unfold slowly, and no official announcement has described his condition beyond the hospital checks in Otukpo. An official announcement is awaited on his return to parish duties.

The wider question remains open, and it is the question Itodo put into his prayer. How many more travellers will be taken on roads like the one between Otukpo and Ajegbe-Awume before the kidnappings stop? The answer will not come from one operation, however successful, but from whether the two arrests in Benue lead to a gang dismantled, a road made safe, and a parish that can travel without fear.

For now, Ajegbe-Awume has its priest back, and that is enough for one week of thanksgiving. The eight people who left Otukpo on October 13 came home in two groups, and the parish knows how close the story came to a different ending. The next time Father Otache travels that road, he will not travel it alone.

But the most surprising part of this story is yet to come — keep reading.