Tragedy in a Church, 4 year-old dead, 15 others unconscious during Night -Vigil

It was a tragic all night prayer as the police in Aba, Abia, has confirmed the death of a four-year old boy during an all night prayer in a church on Saturday morning. The police, who did not give the name of the deceased, also confirmed that 15 other persons were choked during the event. A group called the “Young People’s Christian Fellowship, Ututu, Arochukwu”, were reportedly made unconscious by fumes from a generating set used for the all night prayer meeting. The police Area Commander, Aba, ACP Peter Wabara, made this known to newsmen in Aba. “We got a phone call this morning that some persons were allegedly lying dead in a church at 8...
Eziukwu road by Milverton Avenue, Aba. “So I mobilised my men and called in some doctor friends since the government doctors were on strike and they accompanied us to the scene of the event. “There we looked through the glass door and found them lying unconscious in a scattered manner. Fortunately, some of them were breathing so we moved them to two hospitals,” he said. Wabara said that 11 of the worshipers were evacuated to Austin-Graces hospital on Okigwe road while four of them were moved to Goodness and Mercy hospital on Faulks road, Aba. According to the commander, before leaving the scene, the rescue team searched the church environment and found a generating set that had exhausted its fuel and quenched but was still hot. The commander said that there was a noxious odour in the air of the warehouse-turned-church which gave them the impression that the worshippers may have over-inhaled carbon monoxide. He said that he accompanied the Deputy Governor of the state, Col. Emeka Ananaba (rtd) to the hospitals and found that the persons involved were responding to treatment. Wabara also said that the deputy governor had made a donation of an undisclosed sum of money. The money was donated after a meeting with the Area Commander, the Commissioner for Health and an assistant medical director, at Abia State Teaching Hospital, Aba.

NAN reports that some of the persons brought to Austin-Graces hospital had recovered and could recognise people, but were unable to field reporter’s enquiries during the visit. Dr Philip Richard, Senior Pastor, Word Alife Assembly, Aba, the Secretary of pastors from Arochukwu in Aba, told NAN that the worshippers were all indigenes of Ututu in Arochukwu local government area. “I was not there but I had a phone call telling me this morning that the believers from Ututu in Arochukwu who went to pray in a church in Aba had all died. “I left all that I was doing to get to the scene of the event. We have a fellowship of believers of Ututu origin in Aba and they came to pray for themselves and their community at this venue.

“I was not there. They are from various churches and not from one church. The husband and wife whose child died are from my own church,” he said. Meanwhile, a police source who was among the rescuers, told NAN that the boy died as a result of the weight of his heavily-built father which fell on him when the man became unconscious. The source said the child was seating beside his father and when they became unconscious, the father unknowingly fell to that side of his seat, pressing the boy and making breathing hard for him. Another source from Ututu, told NAN on condition of anonymity that the man and his wife had lost one of their two children last month. She said that they were left with only the boy that died at the prayer meeting on July 26.

How a Son butchered father to death over prayer points

A 21-year-old undergraduate, Tolani Ajayi, of Redeemers University along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, has been arrested by Ogun state Police Command for allegedly killing his father, Mr. Charles Ajayi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.

The incident, according to the police, occurred on Tuesday, July 3, at their residence on Canaanland Street within the Redeemed Christian Church of God’s Redemption Camp.

Tolani was said to have slaughtered his father with a knife and later butchered him with a cutlass.

In attempt to conceal the crime, Tolani allegedly packed his father’s remains in a box and dragged them into the bush within the camp.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Muyiwa Adejobi, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, said the police later recovered the remains of the 60-year-old lawyer in a bush along Canaanland Street.

He said, “The policemen who noticed the ground mark created by the box as Tolani dragged it, followed this lead which led them to the strange discovery.”

He said Tolani, a 300-level undergraduate in the Department of History and International Relations, was arrested the same day in his late father’s residence after the discovery of the corpse and police preliminary findings.

Adejobi added that the Divisional Police Officer of the Redemption Camp Police Station, Olaiya Martins, a Superintendent of Police, had led a team of detectives and some members of the community who noticed the strange attitude of the suspect while dumping the box.

He said, “They traced the ground marks made by the box to the point where the body of the SAN was dumped and thereafter traced the mark to the house of the deceased.

“When the police got to deceased’s house, the suspect was in a relaxed mood.

“When interrogated, the suspect earlier lied that his dad had gone on evangelism, but he eventually confessed to the crime when he was taken to the Redemption Camp Divisional headquarters.”

The suspect was said to have told policemen that problem arose when his late father confronted him for not responding to all the prayer points he (the deceased) was raising, adding that he (father) later slapped him.

He said he got angry and made a dash for the kitchen and picked up a knife, with which he stabbed his father, adding that he later used a cutlass to cut off his head

It was leant that the police had recovered the knife and cutlass used in committing the alleged crime.

Adejobi told our correspondent that the Charles’ corpse had been deposited at a morgue in the Sagamu area of the state.

The matter has been transferred to the Department of Criminal Investigation Eleweran, Abeokuta, for further investigation and necessary action.

End time: how a 'prayer warrior' woman was caught stealing neighbor's child

One Rosemary Chukwu of No. 33, Omo Ologede area in Majidun, Lagos has been alleged to have stole the seven-year-old child of her neighbour, Mrs. Gloria Emeka.

A neighbour  of the kidnapper by name Biola Odunsin, narrated how he, in conjunction with other neighbours, caught Chukwu.

He said, “It was around 6.30am today (Wednesday), when the mother of the child raised the alarm that she could not find her son, Emmanuel.

“We all rallied around her to find out what happened. She informed us that she had sent him to fetch water from the well in the compound. She raised the alarm because her son took too long and when she went to the well, she only saw the empty bucket the boy took there.

“While we were looking for the child, Rosemary (Chukwu) even came out to join in searching for the child as well. She was pitying her mother, showing concern and asking us to check some other parts of the compound.”

According to Punch,  another  neighbours who also took part in the search for the child said that Rosemary Chukwu even asked him to see whether the child was in another compound not far from the house.

Two other neighbours named Yakubu and Vincent told our correspondent that they entered the well where the child was sent to fetch water.

“We entered the well to see if the boy fell inside but we found nothing,” they said.

But while the search for the child was going on, Chukwu was said to have gone inside her apartment and came out with a large luggage.

“She carried the luggage on her head and passed by us as we searched for the child. She said she needed to drop the bag somewhere and that she would come to join the search later,” Odunsin said.

But a suspicious woman, the wife of the landlord of the house, alerted the search party, telling them to search the bag Chukwu had on her head before she was allowed to leave.

When the residents called after her to tell her to bring the bag for a check, she reportedly began to run. But a moment later, she was caught.

“We immediately opened the bag and inside was Emmanuel with a cloth used to gag him. The child would have died because he could not speak again. We tried hard before we could resuscitate him,” Odunsi explained.

However, the infuriated neighbours descended on Chukwu and while they were beating her, she screamed out that they should spare her because she was only a messenger.

“Pastor Ernest sent me! Please don’t kill me, Pastor Ernest sent me o!” she was reported to have told the party of residents.

Then Chukwu took the party to the church of the pastor who she claimed sent her, which turned out to be Pastor Ernest Nwankwo of the Holy Family Happy Family Ministry (House of Mercy), Majidun.

One of the residents who took Chukwu to the church said by the time they got there, the pastor was nowhere to be found. She was later handed over to the police who took her away.

Chukwu is a plump, fair complexioned woman with a motherly face. She is said to have four children – two boys and two girls.

Neighbours said they had not seen her husband, as he was usually away from home even though they are still together.

When our correspondent visited the church on Wednesday, a crowd of residents had besieged the place, barely kept at bay by some sternly looking policemen who were said to have prevented the church from being burnt down earlier by angry residents.

Despite this, some youths had succeeded in entering the church before the police came and seized hundreds of audio CDs of an album recorded by the pastor.

The youths publicly and excitedly sold the CDs on the Ikorodu Road to motorists and passers-by for N50 each.

The policemen rebuffed every attempt to gain access to the empty church, while residents of houses nearby could not provide any information about the whereabouts of the pastor.

Some residents who pleaded anonymity informed Saturday PUNCH that the church was not a conventional one.

“They don’t hold service on Sundays, only on Tuesday and Thursday. The pastor claims to treat mad men,” one of them told our correspondent.

An eyewitness, who entered the church before police intervention, said when they stormed the church earlier, they met a man with his hands and legs shackled in chains.

“I am not a mad man. Please help me! I was taken from around Redeemed Church Camp on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. Pastor Ernest kept me here. There were many of us but they usually come to take away,” the man, who gave his name as Onuora Okeke, was reported to have said. The man also revealed to the people that he was from Anambra State and had been locked up in the church since 2012. Our correspondent learnt the man was taken away by the police.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Ngozi Braide, said the Chukwu would soon be transferred to the Criminal Investigation Department, Yaba for investigation.

She also confirmed that the pastor of the church has not been found.

Our correspondent attempted to contact the Nwankwo through two phone numbers found on his church’s website but none of them were available as of press time.

A fake Pastor claims God instructed him to impregnate church members

Obviously a fake prophet, one Timothy Ngwu, a serial adulterer and fornicator claims God told him to impregnate his church members.  Timothy Ngwu, the General Overseer of Vineyard Ministry of the Holy Trinity, located at Ihe/Owerre, Nsukka in Enugu State has been arrested by Police in Enugu State.

Before his arrest on Friday, the self acclaimed Pastor, who said he was obeying God’s command, has put no less than 20 members of his church in a family way.

DailyPost gathered that Ngwu does not spare married women in his evil act.

The spokesman of the Enugu State Police Command, Ebere Amaraizu, DSP, disclosed that “the pastor claims to be obeying prophetic/spiritual injunction to do the will of God, which is to impregnate any one chosen and revealed by the Holy Spirit, irrespective of whether the woman is married or not.

“When the woman is delivered of the baby, the child remains in the ministry with the mother for life”.

Amaraizu added that “Vineyard Ministry of the Holy Trinity, located at Umudikwere, Ihe/Owere Nsukka in Enugu was not known until DSP Gloria Udoka and her operatives from the Anti Child Trafficking unit of the state criminal and investigation department, stormed the place based on the complaint they received from wife of the Pastor, Veronica Ngwu, bordering on sexual abuse of people in the ministry, which has brought about indiscriminate pregnancy among married and single women in the ministry.

“According to Veronica, her husband used to be a well known catechist in Nsukka Catholic”.

It was further disclosed that while acting under the same alleged will of God, the Pastor got his wife’s niece pregnant.
Some of the members’ wives are now living with him after he impregnated all of them”, the statement added.

Reacting to the allegations against him, the General Overseer stated that he has about five wives with thirteen children, apart from other concubines, who came as a result of the prophetic will of God.

He claimed that he does not do anything with any married woman until full consent and agreement is reached between him and the husband in line with the directives of the holy Spirit.

Two of the women, who had left their husband and are now living with the General Overseer, Calista Omeje, and Assumpta Odo confirmed that they left their husband and went to the General Overseer based on the prophetic injunction to do the will of God.

Calista revealed that she is married to her husband with ten children, and that she was impregnated by Timothy, though the baby later died.

She further disclosed that she also gave her daughter out to the General Overseer to be impregnated in fulfillment of will of God.

Assumpta Odo also confirmed the development, pointing out that she is also married with eight children and that the pastor impregnated her as well as her daughter.

Six boko haram suicide bomber arrested trying to bomb winners church

Six suspected Boko Haram members were arrested in Imo State in the early hours of Sunday inside the Winners Chapel Owerri, along Port Harcourt road, by the Imo State police command, while planting bombs in the church premises.

According to an eye witness account, the security personnel attached to the church noticed strange movements within the church premises and monitored their movements.

The security men alerted the senior pastor of the church, Moses Oyedele who instructed them to alert the police which they did and the Police immediately rushed to the scene with soldiers and other security agents.

In the process, it was discovered that about six suicide bombers have taken over the church perpetrating their nefarious activities.

The source said that the police immediately cordoned off the church premises in search of the suspects leading to the arrest of the suspects.
It was discovered that the suspects had planted a bomb at the entrance gate of the church and had taken position round the premises of the church so as to plant more bombs.
The police anti-bomb squad which detonated the bombs, conducted a thorough check round the premises so as to detect any hidden bomb within the premises.

When interrogated the suspects confessed to be suicide bombers who had stormed the state with the intention of bombing five churches within the state.

The church authority on getting the information in respect of the latest development alerted members of the congregation to relocate the service to the Heroes Square near Imo Concorde Hotel where they conducted their first service which was supposed to begin by 7am.
When contacted, the State Commissioner of Police, CP Adbulmajid Ali advised the citizens to be very vigilant now that the Boko Haram men have penetrated the State. He confirmed that the anti-bomb disposal Unit of the state police command has detonated bombs, adding that investigation to unravel the circumstances surrounding the incident was being carried out.