Bishop of Benin released unharmed after kidnapping ordeal: CEN 2.05.10 p 8.

The Bishop of Benin has been released unharmed after being held for four days by kidnappers.

On Jan 28 the Rt. Rev. Peter Imasuen, along with a local politician Joel Oliha who had been abducted on Jan 15, were released. On Jan 24, Bishop Imasuen was kidnapped at his home in Benin City, the capital of Nigeria’s Edo State in Southern Nigeria.

Bishop Imasuen was abducted by armed gunmen who followed home after Sunday services at St Matthew’s Cathedral. As his car entered the walled compound of Bishopscourt, his official residence, the bandits forced their way inside, overpowering a watchman. The bishop was bundled into a car by gunmen and driven away. A ransom of 50 million Nigerian naira, approximately £200,000, was subsequently demanded for his release.

A church spokesman declined to state if a ransom was paid to secure the bishop’s release. At a news briefing on Jan 29, a diocesan spokesman responded to questions about the ransom by saying “maybe God paid the ransom.”

The Nigerian government has discouraged ransom payments believing it serves as an incentive for further abductions in the crime-plagued Delta region.

Speculation in Edo State, however, centers around a criminal gang as having masterminded the abduction, dismissing suggestions the seizure was related to sectarian divisions in the North or to the region’s separatist movement.