![Rev. Fr. Anthony Odiong, a US-based Nigerian Louisiana Catholic priest, was arrested in Florida on Tuesday for possessing child pornography, according to law authorities. The suspect is reportedly accused of many other cases of sexual assault. The Waco, Texas, Police Department announced in a Facebook post on Tuesday that officers detained Father Anthony Odiong in Ave Maria, Florida, with assistance from the United States Marshals Service. Waco police announced in March that they had received "credible information" about a sexual assault allegedly committed by Odiong in Texas in 2012. “During the subsequent investigation, a case of possession of child pornography was uncovered,” the police said. The priest was apprehended in Florida by the Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force. The Waco Police Department said that he will be extradited to Texas. Odiong had previously served in the Archdiocese of New Orleans before being removed as priest in December of last year due to controversy over homilies in which he claimed, among other things, that the Catholic Church was being taken over by "the gays." At the time, the priest was also accused of abusive behaviour; a Louisiana lady claimed in U.S. bankruptcy court that Odiong had committed both financial and sexual abuse against her. Prior to joining the New Orleans Archdiocese, Odiong served in at least two Texas parishes. On Tuesday, Waco police stated that during their sexual assault investigation, "the presence of other survivors was revealed." “Multiple women have come forward to tell similar experiences as the sexual assault survivor who reported the initial allegation,” the police department said. “Survivors’ experiences ranged from sexual assault and indecent assault, more commonly recognised as groping, and financial abuse, with some survivors experiencing every element of Anthony Odiong’s manipulation.” The police said they “believe there may be more survivors, and we wish to speak with anyone who [has] had similar encounters” with the priest. The Archdiocese of New Orleans issued a brief news release on Tuesday noting Odiong's arrest in Florida. The archdiocese “encourages anyone with any information to contact law enforcement,” the release said.](https://chronicle.ng/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/ezgif-6-4730550ede-300x200.jpg "Odiong: US-based Nigerian Catholic priest convicted over sexual assault")
Farmers in northern Nigeria have called on wireless operators including MTN Group Ltd. to block SIM cards that haven’t been formally registered by their users, saying they enable the operations of Islamist militant group Boko Haram.
“We will stage a protest against MTN and take necessary legal action if it fails to comply with this directive within 48 hours,” Mohammed Sani, the head of the region’s association of small-holder farmers, said in an emailed statement to Bloomberg.
While all unregistered cards have indeed been disconnected, there have been reports of pre-registered SIM cards being sold on to users who haven’t provided personal data, Tobechukwu Okigbo, a corporate relations executive at Lagos-based MTN Nigeria, said in an emailed response to questions on Tuesday.
“To mitigate this, we at MTN put in place a number of controls, and periodically undertake audits,” he said.
READ: 200,000 living with HIV in Oyo State – NACA
MTN was fined $1 billion by the Nigerian Communications Commission regulator last year for missing a deadline to disconnect about 5 million subscribers in a security crackdown.
The farmers believe that unregistered SIMs make it easier for Boko Haram to coordinate attacks and recruit youths without being detected by authorities.
Johannesburg-based MTN is Nigeria’s market leader with more than 50 million customers.
Fighting Menace
The problem “isn’t only affecting MTN,” NCC spokesman Tony Ojobo said by phone from Abuja, the capital.
“After meeting with operators yesterday, an industry taskforce was set up to come up with modalities to fight this menace,” he said.
Boko Haram began a violent campaign in 2009 to impose its version of Islamic law on Africa’s most populous country of more than 180 million people.
Farming communities in the northeast have been among the most vulnerable to the group’s bombings, kidnappings and hit-and-run attacks.
“Unproductive youths of the region could be properly harnessed into productive use through agriculture,” Sani said.
“No serious, commercial-scale and employable farming activity can take place without security of lives and property.”
MTN Nigeria’s customer numbers have been revised down from 60 million in the past six months as it refined the definition of what counts as a subscriber, the company said last week.
The shares traded 0.1 percent lower at 122.86 rand at 2.23 p.m. in Johannesburg on Tuesday, valuing the company at 232 billion rand ($16.4 billion).
![Rev. Fr. Anthony Odiong, a US-based Nigerian Louisiana Catholic priest, was arrested in Florida on Tuesday for possessing child pornography, according to law authorities. The suspect is reportedly accused of many other cases of sexual assault. The Waco, Texas, Police Department announced in a Facebook post on Tuesday that officers detained Father Anthony Odiong in Ave Maria, Florida, with assistance from the United States Marshals Service. Waco police announced in March that they had received "credible information" about a sexual assault allegedly committed by Odiong in Texas in 2012. “During the subsequent investigation, a case of possession of child pornography was uncovered,” the police said. The priest was apprehended in Florida by the Caribbean Regional Fugitive Task Force. The Waco Police Department said that he will be extradited to Texas. Odiong had previously served in the Archdiocese of New Orleans before being removed as priest in December of last year due to controversy over homilies in which he claimed, among other things, that the Catholic Church was being taken over by "the gays." At the time, the priest was also accused of abusive behaviour; a Louisiana lady claimed in U.S. bankruptcy court that Odiong had committed both financial and sexual abuse against her. Prior to joining the New Orleans Archdiocese, Odiong served in at least two Texas parishes. On Tuesday, Waco police stated that during their sexual assault investigation, "the presence of other survivors was revealed." “Multiple women have come forward to tell similar experiences as the sexual assault survivor who reported the initial allegation,” the police department said. “Survivors’ experiences ranged from sexual assault and indecent assault, more commonly recognised as groping, and financial abuse, with some survivors experiencing every element of Anthony Odiong’s manipulation.” The police said they “believe there may be more survivors, and we wish to speak with anyone who [has] had similar encounters” with the priest. The Archdiocese of New Orleans issued a brief news release on Tuesday noting Odiong's arrest in Florida. The archdiocese “encourages anyone with any information to contact law enforcement,” the release said.](https://chronicle.ng/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/ezgif-6-4730550ede-450x300.jpg "Odiong: US-based Nigerian Catholic priest convicted over sexual assault")
