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A 45 year-old senior pastor with the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Ola Olayode, has been arrested for allegedly supplying arms and ammunition to one Owonikoko John, 36, a Unit Commandant of the Vigilante Group of Nigeria, (VGN) for alleged robbery. The Ogun State Police Command informed that John was the mastermind of several nefarious crimes that took place at Obalende and other areas of the state.
It was learnt that John was arrested along Sagamu-Ijebu-Ode-Benin Highway during an operation led by an Assistant Commissioner of Police, ACP Omosanyi Adeniyi, the Area Commander, Ijebu-Ode. Upon his arrest, John was found in possession of a gun and in his confessional statement, he allegedly fingered an Inspector of Police, simply identified as Ola, as the supplier of the gun in his possession. It was learnt that it was in a bid to absolve himself of any violations, that Pastor Olayode, who also happens to be an Inspector in the spy police, fingered a police officer as the person who sold the gun to him that he has been using.
The pastor told our correspondent that he indeed sold his pump action rifle to the suspected armed robber with necessary caution. But begged for mercy. “If I had known, I would not have done it that way,”
The embattled pastor explained that he attended Holy Primary School, Ekiti State, and dropped-out in Junior Secondary School 3 at A.U.D Secondary School, Ikole-Ekiti, Ekiti State. Giving a background of his endeavours in life, the suspect told the police, that after school, he came to his mother’s place in Akure and learned driving for a year. “It was in my mother’s place that I learnt how to drive, at Opese Garage, and worked for two years in that garage.
In 2005, I worked with the former Chairman of Akure South Local Government. On November 25, 1997, I started working as a driver at Redeemed Church. I was attached to Pastor Shola Adeyeye who was a senior pastor at the time, but I married in 2008 and stopped working with him. After I returned to Redeemed Camp in 2008, about 10 senior drivers were sent to Police Training School, Ikeja in 2010, to train as spy police for three months, where I became a spy police.
It was the mission that sent us for the training. “I passed out from the training school as a constable, but in 2017, I applied for a refresher course at the Police Training School, Ikeja, where I was given Inspector rank, it was since then I was being called Inspector Ola. I was issued a warrant card and a certificate, because I am not a regular Police. When I went for the refresher, the mission gave me N50,000, I added N50,000 and the boss I was driving at that time also gave me N50,000.
“I was invited by the Police on a Wednesday when I was preparing to travel to Ibadan with my boss, I was informed that some people were in my house to take my wife to the police station. Upon getting to our Divisional Police Station, the Divisional Police Officer, asked if I was the Inspector who sold gun to an armed robber, I replied that I didn’t sell gun to an armed robber. I explained that officials of the VGN bought a gun from me, but they were referred to me by one Omooba, a well known person in my area.”
(New Telegraph)
