Paraded alongside the robbers by the Lagos State Police Command, Reverend Onwuchekwa, who owns a church in Umuahia in Abia State, said he was innocent of the fact that it was stolen. A 2005 edition of the four wheel drive jeep, his Pajero bore a picture of a 32-year-old clergyman with the words Too Blessed to be Cursed, emblazoned underneath the image.
According to Reverend Onwuchekwa, he thought God had brought a blessing his way, when he bought the SUV for a mere N350,000. Police later paraded him with two notorious car dealers known for selling stolen vehicles, 32-year-old Felix Osas, who sold the vehicle and 32-year-old Ndibe Samuel.
Ordinarily, a used 2005 edition of Mitsubishi Pajero is sold for between N1.4m and N1.8m but when Mr Osas presented himself as the seller, he told Reverend Onwuchekwa that he could give up the vehicle for N500,000. Reverend Onwuchekwa, who is popularly called My father, My father in his church, said he had come to Lagos to attend a Christian programme when he sighted the 2005 Mitsubishi Pajero in Alaba area of Ojo, Lagos and he dialled the number of the seller pasted on the car.
“He gave me the price of N500,000 but I told him that I could only afford N350,000 and after we haggled a little, he agreed to sell the car. He said he would sow the car as a seed into my life for that amount provided I pray for him regularly.
“He said he needed regular prayers and I paid him N350,000 with a promise that anytime he needed prayer, he could call me and I would always pray for him. I even went home to share the testimony of how I bought the vehicle,” Reverend Onwuchekwa added.
According to the clergyman, the Customs papers presented to him all bore the names of Osas, which was what doused ant suspicion he had. Osas explained that few weeks after Reverend Onwuchekwa bought the Pajero, he contacted him again and asked to buy a 2001 Toyota Camry for N250,000, a vehicle which under a normal circumstance, he would have sold for at least N900,000.
This proved to be the nail on the coffin for Reverend Onwuchekwa as the police said he must have known he was buying a stolen vehicle if he did not mind coming back for a second car despite the suspicious price of the vehicles. Mr Osas, who runs Happy Home Motors, was all smiles as he narrated how Reverend Onwuchekwa fell victim of his criminal trade.
Mr Osas added:“I don’t think he actually knew that he was buying a stolen vehicle but if he did not come back for more, the police would not have arrested him along with us. I don’t steal these vehicles myself.
“In fact, I don’t knew where they came from. I got them from one of my friends, who told me to re-register them in my name but when I asked him where he got them, he confided in me that they were stolen."
He added that he had been selling vehicles for seven years because he realised that his initial business as a mechanic was not yielding profits as he wanted. Lagos State Police Commissioner Fatai Owoseni, said the suspects would soon be charged to court.
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