In what could be described as a miraculous intervention by God, a pastor of a pentecostal church has miraculously escaped from the den of kidnappers who abducted him.
According to Edo state commissioner of police, Mr. Chris Ezike, the victim, Pastor Gilbert Akioyamen, was abducted at about 6:00 pm on March 24, along Ukhun road, Ekpoma, Esan West local government area of the state, while on his way to the Deeper Life camp ground.
Three of the suspected kidnappers, including a business woman Charles Arasomwan, 22; Jezreel Ekanem, 21; and Mbindi Nneka, 26; were paraded on Thursday with 72 other suspects arrested for various crimes, at the state police command headquarters in Benin.
Narrating their level of involvement and how their victim escaped from their grip, one of the suspects, Ekanem, said the Pastor had been kept in their custody by some other fleeing members of the gang who promised to reward them.
“They said that they were going to a bank and told us to 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 that he had escaped,” he explained.
His female counterpart, Mbindi Nneka, however denied any knowledge of the abduction, saying that she was only in the apartment to remove her property.
“I don’t know how the matter started. I used to reside at the apartment before after getting married, I gave may brothers the key to the house. It was the landlord that instructed me to remove the property there and I was only acting on his instructions.
“I wish I knew that it would have resulted into this; it was the landlord that has put me in this problem. I only went there to move my property from the house,” she said.
According to the State Commissioner of Police, Chris Ezike, who paraded the suspects after they were arrested Ekpoma divisional police headquarters, said the division received a distress call and combed several buildings in the areas.
He explained that 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 said.