By Augustine Ehikioya
For allegedly kidnapping a Pastor, men of Ogun State Police Command in the early hour of Thursday 14th of July, 2022, arrested two persons.
They were said to have forcefully abducted one Pastor Mapai Samuel of ZOE Family International Church, located at Odo-Eran area of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital.
The suspects, according to a statement issued by the Police Public Relations Officer, Ogun State Police Command, DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi, and made available to Security Watch Africa (SWA), included Ibikunle Opeyemi ‘F’ and Kadiri Jamiu M’.
They were arrested following a distress call received by Policemen at Aregbe Divisional Headquarters, “that two men who dressed in military camouflage accompanied by a woman invaded the church while the Pastor was preaching at about 8pm, and forcefully dragged the Pastor out of the Church and took him away to unknown destination.
“Not quite long after taken the Pastor away, the invaders called to demand for certain amount of money as ransom.
“Upon the distress call, the DPO Aregbe Division, CSP Ikechukwu Gabriel and his detectives quickly embarked on technical and intelligence based investigation and discovered that the suspects were hiding somewhere around Adigbe area of Abeokuta.”
The DPO and his men in conjunction with men of Adigbe Division, the statement said, stormed the hideout where the Pastor was rescued and two of the suspects were arrested, while the two men in military camouflage escaped.
The statement added “On interrogation, the woman amongst them claimed to have been in business relationship with the Pastor, and that the Pastor cheated her in the course of the business which made her to contact the three men to kidnap the Pastor in order to teach him lesson.”
Praising his men for their quick response to the distress call, the Commissioner of Police, CP Lanre Bankole, ordered the immediate transfer of the suspects to Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the State Criminal Investigation Department for discreet investigation.
He also directed that other members of the gang must be hunted for and brought to book.