3, August, 2019
Five persons said to be pastors of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) have been kidnapped.
They were abducted along Sagamu-Benin-Ore Expressway on Thursday on their way to the church’s congress in Mowe, Ogun State.
The Public Relations Officer of the Police Command, Abimbola Oyeyeimi, told journalists on Friday that five people were kidnapped.
He, however, said the identity of the victims was yet to be established.
However, sources at the Redemption Camp that the General Overseer of the RCCG, Enoch Adeboye, confirmed to close aides that the five were pastors of the church.
The Redeemed Church, arguably Nigeria’s largest pentecostal church, has thousands of pastors in its parishes globally.
The church is yet to release an official statement on the matter.
Speaking on the kidnap, Mr Oyeyemi said those involved were travelling on a commercial bus when they were kidnapped.
“Information at our disposal indicates that some people were travelling in a commercial bus from the East and at a particular spot some armed criminals came from the bush, forced the driver to stop and later abducted five of the passengers,†the police spokesperson said.
He said the Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Bashir Makama, had led a police team to the crime scene to rescue the victims.
“Through surveillance, we have got to know their location but we don’t want to attack them (kidnappers) so that we won’t put the victims’ lives in danger. Their lives are more important to us.
The kidnap of the five passengers joins a growing list of kidnap cases in the South-west and across Nigeria.
Last Saturday, the police rescued seven kidnap victims from their abductors on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
The insecurity in the South-west was the main topic of discussion when traditional rulers from the region met with President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday.
At the meeting, the president highlighted some of the steps his administration plans to take to address the situation.
He listed the steps to include the deployment of drones and the establishment of community policing.
The insecurity is, however, not peculiar to the South-west. Scores of people are killed or kidnapped weekly across Nigeria in what analysts describe as a worsening security situation.