Rev. Fr. Mathew Eya, parish priest of St. Charles Catholic Church, has been killed by gunmen in Eha-Ndiagu, Eha-Alumonah, Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State.
According to local sources, the attack happened on Friday evening as the priest was driving back from Enugu, the state capital. Witnesses said two men on a motorcycle intercepted his car near a Type C hospital construction site, fired at the tyres to stop the vehicle and then shot him several times at close range.
One eyewitness described the assault as an apparent assassination rather than an attempted abduction.
> “They closed in on him on a motorbike, disabled his tyres, forced the vehicle to stop and then shot him repeatedly. It didn’t look like a kidnapping,” the source said.
The cleric, a native of Ugbaike in Enugu Ezike, Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area, was reportedly travelling alone at the time of the attack.
Efforts to reach the Enugu State Police Command for confirmation were unsuccessful as its spokesperson, DSP Daniel Ndukwe, did not respond to calls. As of press time, neither the police nor the Catholic Diocese of Nsukka had issued a statement on the killing.
