The Nation Newspaper

Tag: pastor

  • Ondo students support Synagogue pastor

    The National Association of Ondo State Students (NAOSS) has urged the founder of Synagogue Church of all Nations (SOCAN), Pastor Temitope Joshua not to allow the building collapse incident that claimed 115 lives discourage him from serving God.

    The student group also flayed Nigerians for mocking the man of God on the social media and other platforms instead of sympathising with him.

    In a statement signed by the union’s national President, Akinfolayan Awodola, the students, asked Prophet Joshua not to be distracted by the comments from people bent on running him down.

    The statement reads in part: “It is very unfortunate that many Nigerians have castigated the man of God because of the incident. Many have called him different names on the social media.

    “We as students sympathise with the man of God and we admonish him not to allow the incident weigh him down. The impact of Prophet T.B. Joshua in the world at large cannot be underestimated.  He is a special giver who has continued to bless this generation. The man of God through our assessment and public acceptance has touched directly or indirectly millions of lives. One of his kind gestures is the recent employment of 10 university graduates from Ondo State.”

    The students’ body also urged the federal government to probe the helicopter that purportedly hovered round the church before the building collapsed.

  • A pastor and a president

    A pastor and a president

    Ted Haggard was a colourful cleric in the United States. He presided over The New Life Church in Colorado Springs, and he spoke with vehemence against what he saw as the depredation of the liberal politicians, including gay marriage, abortion and the foul air of addiction.

    He hobnobbed with the Republican politicians. So influential was he that he rose to become the head of the evangelicals in the United States. George W. Bush was president then and he frequented the White House. President Bush was a star among the evangelicals because he projected himself as a born again, and pointed out Jesus Christ as his personal hero.

    Haggard, like Bush, looked with contempt at those who did not belong to their world of sanctity. The liberal intellectuals fumed at Bush’s pious contentment, and growled impotently at his swagger and increasing popularity.

    Haggard visited Nigeria a few times and Nigerian evangelicals, including the teeming adherents who purred at the dynamic sermons of the gifted American. They knew he was anointed. Everyone in the spirit saw it with their eyes of understanding. Fire and brimstone flared against sin from his lips. The oil of gladness soothed the righteous from on high at the hour of blessings and miracles. Who did not know that Haggard was a significant part of the divine nature enunciated by Apostle Peter?

    Well, while the peacock spiritual preened, the scandal broke, and Haggard admitted that he was homosexual as well as a drug addict. It was an earthquake as devastating as the earlier ones that rocked Christendom in the same country. But those ones did not carry the whiff of drugs or walk with the gait of gays. Those were adulteries with women, including the secretary.

    But there was humility about Haggard’s confession. He did not play holy or untouchable. He stepped down from his high horse as the chieftain of the holy nation as well as The New Life Church. His fellow pastors and followers prayed for him, but they distanced themselves immediately from him. They knew that God and the church rode a high plane. Every pastor, however successful or anointed, was a speck in the large garment of the church.

    Not long after, the magisterial control of President Bush also waned. His approval rating cascaded. The Bush of Jesus Christ who plumed himself in holy confidence was now a liar. He had corralled innocent Americans to a war based on a false premise. He was no longer the anointed king just as Haggard no longer reigned as anointed servant.

    They had taken advantage of God, church and their faithful to project a false morality about themselves. They had profited profusely while many suffered, including those who slaved for them. Worse was not their servile condition, but their servile belief. They sacrificed their minds for them.

    I reflected on this narrative in respect of the scandal over the unaccounted trip to South Africa of an aircraft belonging to Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, the president of the Christian Association of Nigeria. No Christian would joy to that story.

    We must admit that the narrative is not cut and dried. We have no evidence that the pastor knew about the money. We could however say that he ought to know. He leased it to a company that leased it to another. Technically, as the owner of the jet he ought to know what it was billed to convey, especially if it concerned such a large sum of money. And the $9.3 million belonged to the Federal Government.

    If the purpose was to buy arms to fight the enemy, Boko Haram, it was a sensitive transaction. He was also a frequenter of Aso Rock, and he worked with the president in the fight against the bigoted vermin.

    So how can he explain how he did not know about this trip given these facts?

    When he acquired the aircraft, he did not use the opaque language about having a residual interest in the aircraft. It was his and he needed it as the chariot of the Lord. He would win souls with it. Never mind it is luxury in the air with all the bells and whistles. The souls will soar to God on the wings of the anointed word.

    But once the scandal broke, he receded into residual ownership. But what was worse was that he has not employed a language of remorse or rhetoric of regret in this scandal. He just defended himself as though Nigerians cannot add up the facts.

    He has used the high elegance of CAN to defend the government of the day. He has abused it and wrecked its cathedral beauty. CAN under him has lost its holy majesty and its appeal to the grandeur of God. Oritsejafor acts like a false steward. He is not like Prophet Samuel in the Bible who finished his task and laid it bare to his flock that his slate was clean. He is not like Paul who crooned that he had finished his task and awaited the crown of righteousness.

    He is soaring in the flesh. Yet, our evangelicals, the pastors and bishops, do not seem to know that they should ask him to step down as an act of honour. Such scandals are not good for the church. Whether he knew of it or not, for the sanctity of that position, he should not parade himself as the leader of the evangelicals. Just as Haggard did, he should bow out.

    But it means our evangelicals do not care or know the implication of the scandal to the meaning of Christianity if they cannot raise their voices against what he has done. If Pastor Oritsejafor was too busy to know what his aircraft conveyed, it means he was careless. He should pay for it. In law, it is called indirect responsibility. The aircraft was not acquired to harvest cash but souls. The Bible warns not just against evil but “an appearance of evil”. If he is innocent, he does not appear to be.

    As for President Goodluck Jonathan, it is clear he does not feel any public regret. Until his government proves the South African government wrong, the story will go down as a connivance of corruption between his government and a pastor. Two sacrosanct institutions, the presidency and the church have fallen into scandal. We should not forget that this is the president paraded as representing Christ in Aso Rock. Is this what Christians do in authority? The South Africans deny any arms deal. Who buys weapons or anything internationally these days by hauling cash? One of the achievements of this administration is the cashless policy. The violator is the initiator. What irony.

    Both the president and Pastor Oritsejafor have many people who sacrifice their lives, respect and talent for them. When they fail as role models, they destroy the lives. Like Uncle Vanyaof Anton Chekhov, Russian writer’s play, everybody who worked for the big man woke up to discover they had wasted their lives because they misplaced their faith in one man. The same happened to Haggard and Bush.

    President Jonathan and Pastor Oritsejafor should know that what is at stake is not their little egos. It is the souls of Nigerian people.

     

    Enter the Mutawallen Sokoto

    The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, was bedecked with a stellar traditional title on Saturday. He is now turbaned for his accomplishments as a citizen. He is perhaps the most level-headed politician of his generation. His quiet but visionary hand has held the often tempestuous House on an even keel.

    This is the same House of riot and broken chairs in the past. He has never attracted scandal to himself. He is equable in temper and felicitous in language. He has secured the House and it does not play slave to the executive, and he has defended his legislative turf. He does not play the games of tribal and religious fidelity in the way that injures the commonwealth of citizens. He does not carry an air of the superior personage. That explains why all the rumoured plots of presidential-inspired impeachment did not fly. He knows how to hold his own without vanity or flamboyance. He is humble without servility, effective without showiness, brilliant without bullying.

    That perhaps accounts for why the Sultan of Sokoto, another icon of honour, is giving the honour to another deserving, unobtrusive stalwart of the Nigerian polity. Congratulations, the Mutawallen.

  • ‘Pastor’, six others arrested

    The police in Delta State have arrested seven persons, including a pastor, for alleged stealing aluminum roofing sheets valued at over N50 million.

    Police spokesperson Tina Kalu said the police acting on a tip-off stormed Omirigboma, a suburb of Asaba, and arrested a suspect, identified as Charles Ikebisi.

    Kalu said detectives got information that large quantities of aluminum sheets were discovered at Okwe community awaiting evacuation by buyers from Onitsha, Anambra State.

    She said six persons were arrested at the scene.

    Kalu identified the suspects as Egwu Sunday (24), Pastor Zephaniah Esiobu (54), Osita Uche (31).

    Others are Hyginus Dibor (24), David Chukwunyere (32) and Obiorah Okeke (38).

    Six hundred aluminum roofing sheets were recovered.

  • Alleged kidnap: Police exonerate pastor

    A pastor accused of kidnapping a seven-year-old boy has been exonerated by the police.

    Pastor Ernest Chukwu-emeka Nwankwo of Holy Family, Happy Family Ministry in Ikorodu on the outskirts of Lagos was freed after the police found that he has “no case to answer”.

    A woman, Rosemary Chukwu who allegedly kidnapped Emmanuel Emeka on June 25, claimed that Nwankwo sent her on the mission.

    When she was apprehended by a mob, with Emeka concealed in a travelling box, Rosemary alleged that Nwankwo paid her N4million to steal the boy.

    But, Lagos State Police Command’s spokesperson Ngozi Braide, a Deputy Superintendent (DSP), said yesterday that Nwankwo “has no case to answer”.

    She said the pastor was granted bail because of lack of substantive evidence against him.

    Braide, however, said detectives were still investigating the case, adding that if anything implicating is found against Nwankwo, he would be re-arrested.

    Braide said: “The prophet is on bail. We can’t just detain someone because of allegation that cannot be substantiated. From preliminary investigations, we have not found any evidence to detain him. We have also sent the woman who made the allegation to the psychiatric hospital to ascertain her sanity; we are awaiting the result. The children found with the woman on the day of incident are nowhere to be found.

    The ministry, through its spokesman, Evangelist Patrick Adebayo, had earlier denied all allegations made against Nwankwo.

    The prophet said the woman found with the boy was neither a member nor a worker of the ministry.

    He stressed that the building where some people were found in chains was only used as praying ground for lunatics and not for ritual purposes as alleged.

  • Pastor’s stolen bible lands robbery suspects in police net

    Pastor’s stolen bible lands robbery suspects in police net

    A bible found with a robbery suspect has led to the arrest of five others by operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Lagos State Police Command. The holy book in question was said to have been found with 32-year-old Monday Patrick, leading to the arrest of five other suspected members of a robbery gang, namely Adeagbo Michael, Ismaila Kareem a.k.a. Asmuo, Odu John, Nwoke Promise and Ifeoluwa Coker.

    A police source told our correspondent that the owner of the bible, Pastor Adesoye Zaccheaus of Unity Estate, Igando, Lagos had reported to the police that as he was driving his car into his compound at about 8 pm on May 26, he was accosted by two armed men who forced him to move to the back seat before driving off to the road that leads to the Lagos State University.

    At a point on the road, they pushed him out of the vehicle and drove off to an unknown destination. Pastor Zaccheaus then went to Idimu police station to report the incident. SARS operatives reported the matter to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Umar Manko, who directed the officer in charge of SARS, Abba Kyari, a Superintendent of Police, to take over the case and fish out the culprits.

    The complainant led SARS operatives to Oko Filling area of Igando where Monday Patrick and Michael Adeagbo were arrested. An instant search conducted at the building where they were arrested revealed two pairs of army uniform and a black bag containing the documents of the car that was snatched.

    The two suspects were taken to the Scorpion House headquarters of SARS at GRA, Ikeja, Lagos where they confessed that the robbery operation was carried out by Adeagbo and Ismaila Kareem a.k.a. Asmuo, and that the vehicle, a Toyota Camry, was with Kareem.

    Kareem was said to have been arrested at Iyana-Oworo area of Lagos. He corroborated the statements of the suspects and also named one John Odu as the receiver of the snatched car. Odu, who pretended that he was in Port Harcourt, was later caught at Ikotun area of Lagos while trying to receive another snatched vehicle from the same Asmuo, who was promptly arrested. Asmuo confessed that he snatched the vehicle but that it had been sold to a Port Harcourt-based customer named Promise Nwoke. Nwoke was later arrested and the vehicle was recovered.

    Asumuo also claimed that he sold one Toyota Camry to one Desmond Iwerem and one Ifeoluwa Coker in Ondo State while Desmond is still at large.

    Monday Patrick’s father was said to be the owner of the house the operatives searched and recovered a gun. The building is located on Emmanuel Street, a slum where some boys were found smoking Indian hemp. It was there the police discovered a bible bearing the pastor’s name.

    Narrating his role in the robbery operation, Monday Patrick said: “I don’t know my age. I only remember that I was born in 1982 in Ibilo village, Akoko Edo Local Government Area of Edo State. I trained as a fashion designer.

    “I knew Michael through my work. He came to my shop to meet me with a black bag. When he came, I was busy working and he just dropped the bag and left immediately. He did not come back until three days later.

    “I had become worried and wanted to know what was inside the bag. I thought it was a cloth he had brought for me to sew. Surprisingly, when I opened the bag, I found a gun, books and a big bible. I started looking for him.

    “I smoke Indian hemp, but I have not stolen a pin form anyone. I am happily married with a child. I smoke (Indian hemp) twice a day; once before I start work and once at the close of work.

    “I used to sew clothes for him and we are close friends. He gave me phones whenever he had no cash to pay. But that had happened only two times.

    “When I saw the pastor’s bible, I liked it because it is big. I took it from the bag. When his mother heard that SARS operatives were combing the area, she picked the gun and went to the backyard to hide it.”

    The second suspect, who was said to have gone to prison several times, Adeagbo Michael (29), a native of Ile-Ife, Osun State, said: “I live at No. 27 Emmanuel Street, Governors Road, Ikotun. I am an okada (commercial motor cycle) rider.

    “Somebody gave me a bike on hire purchase and robbers snatched it from me. The owner of the bike took me to the police, alleging that I was the thief. I was charged to court and later sent to the Kirikiri Maximum prison on remand.”

    Asked how he snatched the pastor’s bag, he said: “We were two: Desmond and I. The pastor was coming back from work on that Monday. We took positions and waited for the man to come down. As he came down to open the gate, we rushed towards him.

    “We overpowered him and carried him into the car. He had only N1,000 on him. I took the money. When we wanted to push him out of the car, I gave him N400 for transport. We took him inside the car to stop him from shouting.

    “I was the one who brought the gun. I brought it from my village. Nobody taught me how to rob. It was when they seized my motorcycle that I became jobless. I did not know the pastor before. I just said let us take a stroll and look for something to snatch. Asmuo did not give me a kobo after selling it.

    “As for the snatching of laptops, we operated four times. But the one of jewellery and handsets (phones) happened two times. It was Lucky and Kunle, who is now in prison, who did the work with me. Lucky was killed in an exchange of gunfire with the police.

    “I smoke marijuana (Indian hemp) once every evening. It was in the prison that I learnt how to rob. In the prison, there is no teacher for robbery lessons. Every inmate narrates his experience and others learn from it.”

    The third suspect, Ismaila Kareem a.k.a. Asmuo (27), is married with a kid and hails from Okitipupa in Ondo State. But he resides at Okoafo area of Badagry.

    “He said: “I used to see Michael at Oshodi market area where we rode okada together.I was the one that drove. When we got there, Michael showed the man a gun and put him at the back seat. We dropped him off at Igando area.

    “We had used a pipe gun to snatch a Jeep at Festac side. I did it with Michael. I do smuggling at the Seme border with a Volvo car. Michael told me that he had gone to the village to bring a gun. I am an ex-convict.”

    On why he sold the car without giving Michael a dime, he said: “We decided to be working with the car, but I later decided to sell it. I don’t know his house. He normally takes me to the nearest junction to where he is living for me to wait for him.

    “When I sold the car, I called him and told him that I had not collected the money. I sold the car for N290,000 at the New Garage, Ifako, Gbagada. I used the money to pay the balance of my house rent.

    “I went to Kirikiri prison for using a bike to snatch a bag. I used to operate on Victoria Island, Lagos. I spent two years and three months awaiting trial. A court in Ikeja discharged and acquitted me for want of prosecution as the investigating police officer was absent in court.”

    The fourth suspect, Odu John (39), a native of Ahoda, Rivers State, says he is married with four children and formerly worked with a construction company, Dredging Atlantic, in Port Harcourt. He said his appointment was terminated in 2010 no money was coming into the company and the staff were redundant.

    He said: “I was arrested in connection with the pastor’s car. The car was snatched and brought to me by Asmuo to buy. I knew Asmuo through one Kehinde. I knew that the car was snatched. The pastor’s car was bought for N290,000. Another Toyota Camry was bought for N180,000 and I resold it for N280,000 while the one of N290,000 was resold for N400,000.

    “I live at No. 10, Dele Street, Ikotun. I relocated to Lagos in March this year. I met Kehinde in a restaurant in Ikotun this year and it was he that introduced me to the gang. He said they normally got cars to sell.

    “I graduated in Zoology from the University of Port Harcourt.”

    The fifth suspect, Nwoke Promise (36), says he sells juice and is married with four children.

    He said: “I live in my own house, which I built in Ikwere, Port Harcourt. I bought the car for my senior brother for N400,000. The pastor’s bible was inside a bag. John and I attended the same primary school. He told me that his friend who works in the Customs had a problem and wanted to sell his Camry car for N600,000, but I later paid N400,000.

    “I did not know his work after primary school. He called me on the phone at a restaurant at the University of Port Harcourt and told me that he worked with Charles Ugwu, the previous NDDC Chairman, and I believed him.”

    The sixth suspect, Ifeoluwa Coker (28), graduate of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, who majored in Biology Education, said that Demond was his guardian in the church where they worship in Akure.

    He said: “I am a member of the Buccaneer fraternity. I was arrested in respect of a Toyota Camry. I worship with a new generation church.

    “I joined the Buccaneer in 200 Level. I was threatened to join them because I helped them to do their class assignments.

    “I went to Akure to receive the car.”

  • CLAM Pastor donates N20m children ward to hospital

    Pastor Wole Oladiyun of the Christ Living Apostolic Ministry (CLAM), is one clergyman who derives joy from giving to the society.

    The General Overseer of the Omole, Lagos-based church has just donated a N20 million children’s ward to the General Hospital in his home town, Ile-Oluji, Ondo State. Pastor Oladiyun was said to have initiated the building project two years ago in his bid to provide succour to the masses of the area in terms of healthcare.

    The project was commissioned on July 2nd with the Ondo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko, in attendance to receive the facility on behalf of the government and people of Ondo State. The governor was visibly elated by the Pastor’s gesture.

    He was full of praise for the man who has continued to make humanitarian service an integral part of his pastoral mission. Trust politicians, Governor Mimiko was quick to identify the man of God’s gesture as one of his cardinal goals as a governor.

  • Pastor Madubuko awaits baby from new wife?

    Marriage has many pains; celibacy has no pleasure,” noted the late British writer, Samuel Johnson in a fit of introspection. The late writer admitted the inconveniences attached to marriage even as he rued the cheerless moments that result from staying unmarried.

    Perhaps buoyed by similar notion, Pastor Anslem Madubuko has decided to remarry after the death of his first wife. Pastor Madubuko recently wed Connie, a Kenyan beauty and gospel artiste. His new wife, according to sources close to his family, is reportedly pregnant with his child.

    Sources at the Pastor’s church told Celeb Watch that the Kenyan gospel singer turned pastor’s wife has been showing with telltales of pregnancy in recent times. The duo had their traditional wedding in Kenya in August 2013 and followed that up with a church wedding in Nigeria the following month.

  • ‘How a pastor made me an amputee’

    ‘How a pastor made me an amputee’

    An Abeokuta based pastor allegedly shot Azeez  Adeboye, a student and phone repairer.  The accused is allegedly boasting that nothing will happen to him because he is highly connected. Taiwo Abiodun reports

    The  case between  one Azeez Adeboye , 28, a National Diploma Two Accountancy student of the Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta  and one Pastor Olalekan Taiwo of The Redeemed Christian Church of  God (RCCG), Abeokuta resumed again  last Thursday, June 5, 2014 in a suit filed before an Abeokuta Magistrate Court 2 sitting in Isabo  area  of the city.

    The plaintiff, whose right leg had been amputated  as a result of gunshot fired by the accused, had  previously narrated  on March, 6, 2014 how he was shot by the accused, Pastor Olalekan Taiwo  on September 11, 2011, while on his way home after the day’s work.

    In the court last Thursday, the argument as to whether the pastor should be charged for attempted murder as the Investigation Police Officer accused Olalekan of or that the charge sheet should read infliction of injury came up while the Chief Magistrate, M.A. Akinyemi, asked the lawyer to the plaintiff/witness to make up his mind on what to charge the accused for.

    The magistrate then  gave 15 minutes to the lawyer to deliberate on the issue with his client. After the deliberation, the lawyer came back to inform the magistrate that the case should be treated as grievous injury inflicted on his client. He also wanted the case to continue and not settled out of court.

    The prosecutor, Mr Sunday Egbejale, called witnesses – the medical doctor, Oloko Mazeed who operated on the plaintiff at a state hospital. The doctor was put in the witness box to give an account of what he knew about the plaintiff/witness. According to the doctor the plaintiff/witness, Adeboye, was brought to him with his right leg battered with gun  shots, full of gangrene while he had lost pints of blood as he later gave him pints of blood in order to  save his life and to  stabilise him before  the surgery was performed on his leg.

    The doctor further narrated how the plaintiff’s leg was eventually amputated due to its worsened condition. The medical doctor tendered all the hospital case files and reports on the treatment. The counsel to the accused also cross-examined the medical doctor.

    The next witness that mounted the witness box was Morufudeen  Sharafat , the traditional native doctor who claimed to have removed six pellets from the plaintiff ‘s leg. He admitted that the plaintiff was his patient and that he removed six pellets from his leg but when he discovered that the bleeding was too much and he could not handle it, he quickly referred him to the hospital.

    The pellets were tendered in the court as exhibits.

    The magistrate, however, adjourned the case and further hearing to October 22, 2014.

    Speaking later to The Nation on Sunday, the plaintiff narrated how he suddenly became a one-legged man, limping and using crutches as a result of the brutality which he allegedly suffered in the hands of  the said man of God who took him to be an armed robber despite the fact that he showed him his school’ s identity card.

    He said on September, 11, 2011 around 8:45 in the evening, he was in the company of his two brothers, Ola Adebisi and Tunde Solidiq Yusuf. They were coming from his shop where he used to repair phones, and they were going home. They were all on a motorbike. They were stopped at Onward Street, Elega Area, around Bodelude. He said they met two men who sat under a tree. The men asked them to disclose where they were headed for, and they told him they were going to their house at Fadama.

    Adeboye also claimed that he and his brothers also  showed to the two men the two packs of Indomie, sachets of water and eggs they had earlier bought .

    The two men, according to Adeboye, “insisted that we were already late in the night.”

    He related further: “It was at this juncture that the accused, Olalekan, whom I discovered was a Pastor in the Redeemed Christian Church of God  started calling us thieves, insisting that we were on a robbery mission. I thought he was joking at first. Later he became serious and I brought out my student’s identity card  containing my matriculation number 08010327 , but he was still not convinced As this was going on, the pastor told his partner not to let us go and he went  inside to bring his gun. I pleaded and begged him that we were not thieves and I even told him to contact our in-law, Alhaji Adeniji, who lives in the vicinity,  and that my brother could call  him to identify us  or they should chain us till the following morning and take us to the police station.

    “But while saying this and pleading, the accused had come back with a double barrel gun and pointed it at me. Again, I pleaded, begging him in the name of God and all prayers that came out from my mouth, pleading to him not to shoot me. He refused to listen to me and said he had shot many like this as I would not be the first victim. He cocked his gun and shot my leg at a close range. I fell down writhing in pains. As this was going on, two Okada riders ran into us and held the man’s shirt that he would not escape.  The pastor ran home and brought some liquid for me to drink. Later, I was taken to Shalom Hospital at 71, Ilugun Road, Mokola, Abeokuta, where the doctor said he  he could not treat me  since I was shot at a close range. Then I was taken to a traditional herbalist who specialises in removing pellets. And he was able to remove only six pellets from my leg.”

    He was later taken to several hospitals where he was rejected. He was eventually taken to the state hospital at Sokenu, Ijaiye where he was put through days of intensive care and blood transfusion. When he was taken to the theatre for operation, it failed because the impact of the gunshot had damaged his leg. The doctor then advised that my leg should be amputated.”

    He said he spent about one year in the hospital and his family footed the bill along with a landlord on the street. The accused, he said, only visited him twice and did not turn up again. The accused, he also said, had not paid a cent of his hospital bill, and has been boasting about that he would be set free”

    He lamented: “Whenever I wake up and see my amputated leg, I feel like committing suicide. In fact, every day I wake up and see my amputated leg, I weep.

    “My colleagues are not happy seeing me like this. My girlfriend has run away, our relationship ended when the leg was amputated. I had stopped dreaming of my HND, I have only ND in Accounting .I bought one crutch for 18, 0000.”

    He said he attempted to commit suicide twice when he was feeling pains in the hospital. In his words: “I woke up and took a knife to kill myself but my mother suddenly woke up and saw the knife in my hand and took it.”

    He said the gun used by the accused, which had been tendered in court, has no license.

    The next hearing has been fixed for October 22, 2014.

  • Pastor arraigned over alleged theft

    A pastor, Emmanuel Akinsanya, who allegedly broke into a house and stole property worth N680, 000, was on Friday put on trial at an Itire Magistrates’ Court in Lagos.

    Akinsanya, 58, who resides at No. 35a, Ayodeji Ogunlana St., Mafori, Ejigbo, a Lagos suburb, is facing a three-count charge of conspiracy, housebreaking and theft.

    The prosecutor, Insp. Ezekiel Ayorinde, told the court that the accused with others still at large committed the offences on Jan. 6 at 2.00 p.m. at 24, Okoye St., Bucknor, Isolo, Lagos.

    He said the accused gained entry into the apartment of one Christiana Njoku through the roof and stole property worth N680, 000.

    According to the prosecutor, Njoku got a call from a neighbour that some men were at her apartment tearing down the roof.

    Ayorinde said Njoku was told that the owner of the building had contracted him and three others to remove the roofing sheets.

    “When the complainant entered her apartment, she discovered that her laptop, a gold necklace and some money, all worth N680, 000 were missing.

    “Njoku immediately made a report at the Ejigbo Police Station.’’

    Ayorinde noted that the offences contravened Sections 285, 305 and 409 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

    The accused pleaded not guilty.

    The Magistrate, Mrs Abegunde David, granted the accused bail in the sum of N50, 000 with two sureties in like sum.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the accused may be given a three-year jail term if convicted.

    The case was adjourned to April 17 for mention.

  • Police parade Pastor, 30 other suspects in Ondo

    Police parade Pastor, 30 other suspects in Ondo

    Nemesis may have caught up with 31 suspected criminals in Ondo State, who were paraded by the police in Akure, the state capital last weekend. DAMISI OJO reports.

    The police in Ondo State have arrested a 28-year-old Pastor, Okpara Emmanuel Chigozie over his alleged involvement in the kidnap of a Two-year-old girl in Akure, the state capital.

    Pastor Chigozie, founder of a Pentecostal church in Owerri, the Imo State capital was one of the 31 suspects paraded by the Ondo State Police Command last weekend at the command headquarters in Akure, during the maiden press briefing of the new police commissioner Isaac Eke.

    The Pastor was arrested in his apartment in Owerri by detectives from the State Criminal Investigation Department (CID), Akure.

    His arrest followed a report lodged at the Okuta Elerinla Division of the command on March 12, that a two-year-old girl had been kidnapped in the area. Police detectives immediately swung into action and arrested a 25-year male suspect Chinonye Anufor, which eventually led to the arrest of the Pastor.

    According to the Commissioner of Police, socks of the kidnapped girl, her pair of canvass and about 15 SIM cards with eight assorted types of phones were among the items recovered from the Chigozie’s apartment.

    During an interview with reporters, the suspect said, “I was called at the age of 18 to preach the word. I am a graduate of Delta State University. When I finished from school, I was serving under Prophet Elijah Kalu, who later prayed for me and said I should go and open my own ministry.

    “I later opened Believers Prayer Ministry, at No. 36, Umudagu Road, by Veronica Hardel junction, Orji, Owerri.

    “Last week Wednesday, a boy called Lukman came with one brother (Sly) and said a lady gave birth to his child but wants to take the baby away because he could not give her money, He said I should come and talk to the woman to release the child to him.

    “They came to me with a guy in army uniform and we all came (here) together. We were four in number and we came in a Toyota Camry car. When we got to the place they showed us the house.

    “So, in the morning he (Sly) just called us and said the wife was coming out, when we got there we saw her and we collected the baby from her. On our way we stopped, that was when he told us that it was a lie that he is a kidnapper, that the man owed him some money that he was working for the man before. So, we took the child to Yenegoa in Bayelsa State and dropped her there,” the Pastor narrated.

    He, however, confessed to the crime, stressing that he was very sad and remorseful.

    Similarly, another gang of kidnappers was arrested by men of the Ondo State Police Command and equally paraded before the public. The gang was led by a University undergraduate, Olanrewaju Adeku-nle, currently on teaching practice at a secondary school in Ibadan

    The gang was intercepted by the police along Ajagba/Agadagba Road, in Ese Odo Local Government, Ondo State.

    One 28-year-old, Gasiakpo Niakpo, a student of Niger Delta University Bayelsa was also apprehended on the spot with one Henry Doye Messiah, while another suspect, Edward Onwei escaped into the bush.

    Items recovered from them included a Toyota Solara car with Reg. No. AKD 731 AR and a case file, which the command said would soon be transferred to Oyo State command for further action.

    Niakpo who confessed to the crime said “we never intended to kidnap anybody, it was a friend that called me that there was a fraudster (Yahoo boy) who has been evading police and EFCC, that we should go and collect money from him, we never intended to kidnap him”

    He said they were arrested by the police while coming to Akure to a new generation bank where the guy was supposed to get money and pay them as ransom.

    Niakpo said their plans were never to kidnap him but to harass him with the police in order to extort money from him.

    Among other suspects paraded were cultists  arrested during police  raids in the State Capital as a follow up to the murder of one Sunday Eniola who was shot dead during a fight between two rival cult groups last week at Tipper garage, Akure.

    The CP said in the course of the exercise, one Taiwo Olamilekan (a.k.a) Olorunwa was apprehended with bullet wound on the left leg.

    According to him, on interrogation, the suspect confessed that he is a member of “Eye” confraternity , saying he sustained the gunshot wound during an encounter with the other cultists

    The police chief said one Sunday Eniola who was earlier shot dead was equally said to be a member of the “Eye” confraternity.

    Other suspects paraded were armed robbers who stole motorcycles and goats.

    However, the new police chief has  assured the people of the command’s readiness to combat crimes and flush out criminals in the state.

    He said the command would create a robust symbiotic relationship with member of the public, corporate bodies and the media through an open door policy.

    The commissioner however solicited maximum cooperation from the  people  on useful information to achieve the desired goal.