[Culled From The Sun NewsOnline]
Nemesis has caught up with a youth leader of
the Living Faith Church in Okene, Kogi State,
who professed to be a born-again Christian but
was the leader of a 10-man robbery gang.
The
suspect (name withheld) who was described as
very popular in the area, allegedly led his gang to break into the office of the pastor of the
church in the night and carted away over
N315,000 belonging to the church. Ironically, he was one of the early callers to the
church the next morning, and joined in raining
curses on the perpetrators of the crime.
Parading the suspects yesterday, at the police
headquarters in Lokoja, the state Commissioner
of Police, Mohammed Musa Katsina, described the arrested suspects as a sledgehammer
robbery gang.
He said that the youth leader,
“who led the robbery operation was seen the
following morning, raining curses on the
robbers and even invoking Holy Ghost fire on
them, and now, the Holy Ghost fire has caught up with him.”
He said that the gang made up of bricklayers
and block moulders specialize in breaking into
shops and private residences, carting away
goods and money. The Commissioner stated
that the suspects were armed with guns and
other dangerous weapons during their operations He said that they normally disguise
as casual labourers going around residences
and shops in search of potential victims. The
police boss said the mother of the gang leader
is a chorister in the same church.
Answering
reporters’ questions, the arrested youth leader confessed that he played the born-again youth
leader in the day, and armed robber at night. He confessed that he has led 27 robberies
within Okene and Lokoja as well as Adavi local
government areas. The Assistant Pastor of the
church, Pastor Aloysius Momoh, who
expressed surprise at the youth leader’s
involvement in the crime, said that the church went into seven-day prayer and fasting shortly
after the church was robbed, and God warned
those behind the dastardly act to repent
between May and December, last year, or be
disgraced.
One of the victims, Paul Ikunagus,
said over N2 million cash was stolen from his shop while one of them said he lost N5.8
million to the robbers who invaded his shop
last December. All the victims who spoke to Sunday Sun
commended the police in the state under the
leadership of Musa Katsina for bringing the
elusive gang members to book.
Items
recovered from the suspects included one
locally made gun, a jerk knife, two big hammers, handsets and clothes.
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