A High Court in Nigeria's Adamawa State has sentenced three men to death for abducting two Catholic priests in February 2025, Premium Times reports.
Justice Christopher Mapeo convicted Taledo Demiel, Namomai Medan and Mikaila Yusuf on Thursday of charges including conspiracy, kidnapping, armed robbery, harbouring a kidnapped person and negotiating a ransom. The Reverend Fathers Matthew Dutsemi and Abraham Sauman were seized from their home in Gwaida-Malam, in Numan local government area, in the early hours of 22 February 2025.
The State Security Service said the ruling was the seventh death sentence it had secured this year. Other capital convictions in 2026 have included cases in Ekiti, Katsina, Kogi and Sokoto states, and the men convicted over the 2022 attack on St Francis Catholic Church in Owo, as Nigeria's security agencies step up prosecutions for kidnapping and terrorism.
Source: Premium Times
