A 52-year-old man, Adetokunbo Adelopo, who is also the pastor and General Overseer of New Life Church of God, Sagamu, Ogun State, has been arrested for kidnapping and detaining a dispatch rider; Job Ekpo Jonathan, in an underground hole inside his church.
The suspect was arrested at Lokosi area of Sagamu on July 17, 2020.
The suspect and his gang were paraded by the Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Frank Mba, alongside others on Wednesday at the office of the Inspector-General of Police Intelligence Response Team in Abuja.
While speaking with journalists, Adelopo, who said he had spent over 20 years in the ministry, stated, “I was ordained as a pastor by Bishop Abayomi in Ibadan in 2014. We do a lot of charity in my church and during this COVID-19 pandemic period, I didn’t have anything in my account and people were still coming for help
“We needed money to buy foodstuffs and ram for this Sallah and that was why I decided to source money from these companies by kidnapping their staff.”
The kidnap victim, Mr Job, who narrated his ordeal to journalist, said he spent 10 days in captivity inside an underground hole, which they called ‘Special Guest House’ where he was only fed with garri, sugar and beans.
He said, “When I got to the church to deliver the items, they put a rope around my neck from the back and I started struggling to free myself from the rope.
“When they finally brought me down, the pastor injected me and that was the only thing I remember.
“They were feeding me with garri, sugar, beans, coke and water. I spent about nine days in that hole and was rescued by the police on the 10th day. I have never experienced such a thing like that before.”
Mba said four AK-47 riffles, 361 rounds of AK-47 live ammunition, five other weapons and one anti-tracking device were recovered from the suspects.