Two suspected kidnappers have been arrested by men of the Ogun State Police Command for the alleged abduction of one Pastor Mapai Samuel of Zoe Family International Church, Odo-Eran, Abeokuta.
PUNCH Metro learnt that the suspected female kidnapper, Ibikunle Opeyemi, and her male colleague, Kadiri Jamiu, were arrested on Thursday following a distress call received by policemen at the Aregbe divisional headquarters.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, in a statement on Thursday, said two other suspects dressed in military camouflage escaped arrest.
He explained that the suspects carried out the operation on Wednesday around 8pm, but the two suspects were arrested on Thursday morning.
Oyeyemi said the police were told that two men dressed in military camouflage accompanied by a woman invaded the church while the pastor was preaching around 8pm on Wednesday, forcefully dragged him out of the church and took him to an unknown destination.
He said, “Not quite long after taking the pastor away, the invaders called to demand a certain amount of money as ransom.
“Upon the distress call, the DPO, Aregbe division, CSP Ikechukwu Gabriel, and his detectives embarked on a technical and intelligence-based investigation and discovered that the suspects were hiding somewhere around the Adigbe area of Abeokuta.
“The DPO and his men, in conjunction with men of the Adigbe division, stormed the hideout, where the pastor was rescued and two of the suspects were arrested, while the two men in military camouflage escaped.
“On interrogation, the woman among them claimed to have been in a business relationship with the pastor, and that the pastor cheated her in the course of the business, which made her to contact the three men to kidnap the pastor in order to teach him a lesson.”
The PPRO said the state Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole, had ordered the immediate transfer of the suspects to the anti-kidnapping unit of the State Criminal Investigation Department for discreet investigation.
