Published 14th Jun, 2022

By Joseph Adeiye

Some gun-wielding men have attacked a Celestial Church parish in Wasimi, Ogun State, abducting two members of the church.

According to Oluwatomisin Ehuwaojomo, the Shepherd of Oshoffa Parish, the armed attackers, numbering at least four, stormed the Celestial Church of Christ, Oshoffa Parish in Ewekoro local government area, at about 11pm on Monday, abducting two church workers: Oluwasegun Ajose, an assistant shepherd, and Ayobami Dagunro, Sunday school teacher.

“They came here around 11pm last night. I was on the premises of the church with my assistant and other church workers. We were all in the church up till 10:30pm,” Ehuwaojomo told FIJ on Tuesday.

“After 10:30pm, I told my fellow workers that I needed to go take my rest. I planned to get back by 2am so that I would keep vigil of the environment. That’s how we have been doing for the past three months because we have envisaged what happened.”

Ehuwaojomo said having foreseen the incident in his capacity as a prophet, he told his church members to be watchful.

“I went upstairs around 10:30pm to bathe and rest. It was barely 30 minutes when my assistant ran up. He was banging on my door, saying ‘Baba, Baba, Baba, the Fulani men have come,” he said.

“When I got down they had taken my assistant shepherd and the Sunday school teacher. There was a pregnant woman who they dragged along but left on the way. She could not really walk; she was sick. There was another young shepherd, Prophet Jesse, with them who ran away. He escaped.

“The attackers left around 11: 25pm, just a 25-minute operation. When they left I, quickly called the Commissioner of Police. After I called the CP, he related with the Divisional Police Officer in the area and the police came down to the church. They came with security apparatus and combed the whole bush surrounding us but they could not locate them. But they saw their footsteps.”

Ehuwaojomo said this assistant shepherd called him from the kidnappers’ den two hours later. He explained that the attackers were kidnappers and they demanded a N50 million. The kidnappers also spoke to Ehuwaojomo and demanded N50,000,000 in exchange for his church members.

“They spoke to me in Yoruba and Fulani,” Ehuwaojomo said. “They’ve called me about five times today. I told them that I am still running around to see if I can get money for the ransom.”

FIJ called Abimbola Oyeyemi, Ogun state police public relations officer, but his number was busy. Oyeyemi had not responded to a text message at press time.

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