LANCEGUARDS- UPDATE

Kidnapped pastor buried alive!

N-Delta militant leader beheaded
EMMA AMAIZE Warri

THE leader of a Niger Delta militant group, “the lord of the land”, operating at Ughelli, Delta State, which kidnapped a pastor of the Faith Assembly Prophetic Ministry from the pulpit, August 26, has been beheaded and two of his boys put to death by an irate youth faction that took the gauntlet and invaded the den of the militants over the reign of horror the group had visited on their fellow citizens.

Cold spasm, however, ran through the residents, weekend, following a shocking disclosure that the pastor, whose aged mother suffered stroke as a result of his abduction, was allegedly buried alive, few days after his abduction in a grave dug by the cold-blooded gunmen.

The pastor was believed to have been killed by the militant group to cover its tracks when it was discovered that they kidnapped the wrong person and releasing him alive would lead to the exposure of the members and their hideout.

Delta State commissioner of police, Mr. Hezekiah Dimka, told Sunday Vanguard when contacted, yesterday, on whether the police had located the remains of the pastor, that he had not received the update on the matter and promised to make information available later. It was, on the other hand, gathered that homicide detectives from the Police Headquarters, Asaba brought two of the militants, already in police net in connection with the alleged death of the pastor to Ughelli, last Friday, to show them where the victim’s remains were buried.

The family of the pastor had, last week, sent a save our soul (SOS) message to the governor of Delta state, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan and the speaker of the state House of Assembly, Hon Oliseh Imeagwu, to assist them in securing the release of their son, who had not been seen since he was seized in the church while preaching on the said day.

Sunday Vanguard gathered that the militant leader who “ruled” Ughelli with an iron fist was hired by a chief in the area to kidnap the spiritual leader of the said church for purportedly foretelling that he (chief) was not capable of putting his wife in the family way, a development that made the wife to desert him but when the gunmen who did not know the spiritual leader face-to-face got to the Lord’s sanctuary, they kidnapped the pastor who they saw delivering a sermon, believing that he was their target.

The cup of the militant leader, whose group killed a soldier attached to the Joint Task Force in the Niger-Delta, last year, a situation that enraged the Task Force, which wanted to deploy soldiers in the area but for the intervention of the state government, got filled when in the wake of a festival in the community, last week, he imposed a levy on the residents and ordered them to pay homage to him. His group threatened to deal with any citizen who flouted the directive and hundreds of panic-stricken residents fled the town.

A faction of youths in the town, some of them believed to be former members of the group, which could no longer stomach the horrific escapades of the militant leader, stormed his base and, for two days, it was a running battle, following which he was overpowered and beheaded. Two of his men were killed and others fled.

Nevertheless, the police arrested at Ekiugbo, last Wednesday, two members of the gang who, on interrogation, squealed that they were responsible for the kidnap of the pastor and that he was dead. They confessed that their actual target was the bishop of the church and that their boss was hired by a chief to kidnap the man of God that prophesied that the chief was incapable of impregnating his wife. Sources said that the militant leader and the chief were related.

Sunday Vanguard could not reach the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of the Ughelli “B” Division, Mr. Adamu Dandujah, yesterday, but a police source hinted that the two suspects had since been transferred to the Police Headquarters, Asaba and that it was from Asaba that they were brought to Ughelli to show the police where the pastor’s remains were buried.