by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) - A young Christian man serving with the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) in Nigeria’s Adamawa state was hacked to death with machetes on August 26 in what is believed to have been a targeted attack, Morning Star News (MSN) reports.
Samaila Sabo Awudu, 28, was slaughtered by five men who broke into his room at the NYSC living quarters in Yola, Adamawa, and butchered him with machetes, MSN reports. The motive for the attack is not yet known, and the matter is being investigated by the Adamawa State Police Command, which is understood to be searching for the murderers.
At Awudu’s funeral at the Christian Reformed Church-Nigeria (CRC-N) assembly in Gindin Dorowa, his brother Saba said Awudu had “endured the rigors of growing up and schooling, only for his life to be cut short just when his family members were beginning to look up to him for support. His death will no doubt negatively affect us, his family, and the Christian community here.”
While the Nigerian government has been notoriously amiss in protecting the country’s Christians from years-long ongoing slaughter by radicalized Islamic militants, member of parliament Danjuma Usman Shiddi of the All Progressives Grand Alliance party said, in an August 28 statement: “We are engaging with the relevant security services and the criminal justice administration players to ensure justice for the deceased, his immediate family, our community and constituents.”
Nigeria ranked number one in the world last year for the number of Christians murdered on account of their faith: 4,650 Christians were murdered in Nigeria between October 1, 2020, and September 30, 2021, MSN reports.