Extremist Muslims have murdered a 70-year-old pastor in Uganda after stopping him and his wife on their way home after grocery shopping.
Bishop Francis Obo was the senior pastor of Mpingire Pentecostal Revival Church Ministries International in Odapako village and oversaw 17 churches across the region, Morning Star News reports.
According to news reports, Muslim extremists dressed in Islamic attire confronted him and his wife, Christine Obo. She said one of the men called her husband an “infidel” who drives Muslims to leave Islam and “blaspheme the words of Allah” but “Today Allah has judged you.”
After forcing them from their vehicle, she says they told her to leave. “Another assailant told me to go away and added, ‘Today, it is a day for your husband.’ As I moved a few meters in a hurry trying to save my life, I heard a little noise and wailing from my husband and realized that his life was in danger.”
When Obo arrived at her home, she was trembling and unable to speak. Her children took her to a hospital, where she regained consciousness the following morning.
The distraught woman told her eldest son to take his siblings and go to the site of the attack.
“Reaching there, they were shocked and fearful as they found a big number of Christians and relatives gathered around the dead body mourning their bishop after his being murdered by Muslims,” Obo was quoted as saying.
#Christian Pastor Slain over Outreach to Muslims, Sources Say https://t.co/l9ezsrpeEI Pls retweet #persecution #christianpersecution #religiousfreedom
— Morning Star News (@morningstarnewz) June 18, 2021
Police found Imam Uthman Olingha wearing bloody clothing and arrested him, along with another suspect, who was identified as Jafari Kato.
Olingha reportedly confessed to killing Bishop Obo, with an officer telling the family, “Olingha openly confessed that he can’t regret that he killed the bishop because he did it in the cause of Allah’s word to kill all infidels who mislead Muslims.”
Christine Obo said her husband actively shared the Gospel with Muslims locally and in the surrounding areas. She said that he led many of them to find faith in Jesus Christ.
“Some Muslims had earmarked him as someone who has been misleading their fellow Muslims and had been warned to stop converting Muslims to Christianity,” she said.
Bishop Obo leaves behind his wife and 13 children.
The assault was the latest of many instances of persecution of Christians in Uganda that Morning Star News has documented.
In May, a pastor in eastern Uganda was followed home from church and murdered by Muslim extremists who cut out his tongue and beheaded him, Morning Star News reported. The attack came after the pastor led six Muslims to Christ.
–Metro Voice and wire services