51 year old Pastor Ignatus Ogboi of the Christ Army Church at Mbiri in Ika North East Local Government Area of Delta State, has been caught with 3,871 live cartridges, some prohibited drugs and an undisclosed amount of money.
This came as the presiding Pastor of Deliverance Home of Comfort Assembly in Ihiagwa, Owerri, Imo State, Benjamin Ndieze, was arrested for allegedly stage-managing abduction to fulfill a prophecy. Ogboi was arrested by policemen attached to the Special Anti- Kidnapping Squad (SAKCCS) who were acting on intelligence information that he was doing illegal business in the area.
The cleric owned up to the ownership of the exhibits but denied the suspected case of kidnapping, illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition and prohibited drugs, including Tramadol, levelled against him.
The Delta State Commissioner of Police, Muhammad Mustafa, who paraded him with suspected cult members, murderers and armed robbers in Asaba yesterday, said Ogboi specialised in sponsoring kidnapping and armed robbery operations within Agbor, Umunede and its environs. But the suspect thanked God that no criminal case had been traced to him. Ogboi said he only helped the vigilantes in his community to procure the recovered items found in his possession after they complained that they were buying them at exorbitant rates elsewhere.
He said: “I have agreed to all these things before men but to God be the glory that I am not a kidnapper. I helped vigilantes in my area to buy them cheap. So, the day I brought them into the community, I was arrested. I am not the manufacturer of the cartridges. I am still an ordained minister of God in Christ Army Church, Umunede. The bulk of the money being paraded is very small compared to what I usually have with me, if my business was still booming. I am not a kidnapper as being speculated.”
But Mustafa disagreed. He said: “Operatives of the state Anti-Kidnapping Squad, Asaba, led by the officer in charge, stormed his residence with duly signed search warrant, arrested him and recovered a loaded English made double-barrelled gun, 3,871 live cartridges, some prohibited drugs and undisclosed amount of money believed to be ransom collected from victims.”
Mustafa said Ogboi was doing an illegal business of the highest degree of suspicion and suspected that drugs in his possession were being used on his victims. The suspect, however, maintained that he bought the drugs for his sick wife while the cartridges were being sold in bits to end users. The commissioner said Ogboi’s arrest followed discreet information the command received through intelligence gathering that a businessman and pastor was dealing on illegal goods in the locality.
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