Police arrest three for abducting cleric in Edo

The police in Edo State have arrested three persons, including a businesswoman, for allegedly kidnapping a pastor of a Pentecostal church, Gilbert Akioyamen, in Ekpoma, Esan West Local Government Area of the state.

‎It was gathered that Akioyamen was abducted at about 6pm on March 24, along Ukun road while on his way to the Deeper Life camp in the area.

It was learnt that the suspects were arrested after the Ekpoma divisional police headquarters received a distress call and combed several buildings in the area.

According to the police, the victim was later rescued while two of the “hoodlums‎ on guard” were arrested.

The police identified the suspects arrested in connection with the abduction as Charles Arasomwan, 22; Jezreel Ekanem, 21; and Mbindi Nneka, 26.

According to the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Chris Ezike, while Arasomwan and Ekanem were nabbed in the building where the victim was kept, Nneka was arrested in the apartment of one of the suspects, said to be her relative.

“Two locally made cut-to-size single barrel guns, mask, ATM cards, one long rope and one mat were recovered from the suspects,” Ezike added.

PUNCH gathered that the pastor escaped from the kidnappers’ den when the suspects were asleep.

‎One of the suspects, Ekanem, told our correspondent when he was paraded along with 74 others on Thursday, that the pastor had been kept in their custody by some other fleeing suspects, who promised to reward them.

He explained that they later fell asleep, after the cleric refused to speak with them, and woke up to discover that the victim had escaped.

“They said they were going to the bank and that we should keep an eye on the man‎. They said that they would give us something to buy some beer.

“The man did not talk to us, so we slept off. When we woke up, we realised he had escaped,” he said.

But the female suspect, Nneka, denied any knowledge of the abduction, adding that she was only in the apartment to remove her property‎.

She also blamed her landlord for her arrest.

The woman said, “I don’t know how the matter started. I was the one living in the apartment before I put my brother there when I got married. It was the landlord that instructed me to remove the property from the apartment .

“I wish I knew that it would have resulted into this; it was the landlord that put me in this problem.‎ I only went there to move the property to my house.”

Meanwhile, the police commissioner said that a total of 25 armed robbery and kidnapping suspects ‎were arrested in different locations between February 1 to April 7, 2016.