MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Violence-weary Christians in Borno state have been further upset to learn of the murder of a Nigerian evangelist by Boko Haram less than three months after the Islamic extremist group killed a Maiduguri pastor.
Mark Ojunta, a 36-year-old evangelist from southern Nigeria who was ministering amid the Kotoko people of Nigeria’s northeastern state with Calvary Ministries (CAPRO), was shot Aug. 27 in Maiduguri. In a press statement, CAPRO international director Amos Aderonmu said Ojunta died “as a martyr on his field among the Kotokos.” CAPRO had learned that all its staff members working among the Shuwa Arab, Kotoko and Kanuri peoples were on a Boko Haram list of people to be killed and had evacuated them, Aderonmu said. Ojunta had returned to teach a class after the evacuation of his family.
In his statement, Aderonmu said four days before his death, Ojunta had received an invitation to leave work among the Kotoko people to take a position at CAPRO’s international office in London. He declined. Ojunta is survived by his wife, Ema, and two children, 3-year-old Kambe and 9-month-old Akira, besides his parents and sisters. The killing came less than three months after the June 7 murder of a Church of Christ in Nigeria pastor David Usman, 45, and church secretary Hamman Andrew, who were shot by members of Boko Haram in Maiduguri.
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