Rivers police arrest four men for killing pastor as Ayo Oritsejafor condemns rich clergy

MEN of the Rivers State Police Command have arrested  four men for killing a pastor who tried to preach repentance to them Ohigha in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area and buried his body in a shallow grave.

 

In a first such case of its kind, Pastor Chukwu Ekere, is alleged to have been murdered by Henry Ajie, 23; Bright Ajie, 22, Dadison Ogadima, 22, and Sampson Dibia, 30. According to the police, the men were arrested at Ohigha in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government and in Diobu, Port Harcourt, the state capital.

 

They had also raped a woman earlier in Ohigba and buried her in the same fashion and following their arrest, the suspects confessed to both crimes. According to the police, the suspects will be charged to court as soon as the investigations are concluded.

 

A police spokesman said: “The suspects confessed to the allegations of the victim’s kidnapping after which they raped, strangulated her and buried her corpse in shallow grave at Ogbosi. The gang also confessed to have been responsible for the kidnapping Pastor Chukwu Ekere of the same Ohigha community and killed him for the simple reason that the man of God disturbed them with his preaching of repentance and also for urging them to shun their nefarious activities and accept God."

 

Meanwhile, outgoing Christian Association of Nigerian president and a former Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria head Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, says most people who claim to be pastors or men of God are not, as they were not called by God in the first place. He expressed displeasure over how these men of God have now turned the church into a business centre and living flamboyant lives, stating that the development was the reason kidnappers now see the church as a place to make money.

 

Pastor Oritsejafor said: “The problem we have in the church is that a lot of these pastors are not men of God as they were not called. They are mercenaries, commercially minded people.

 

"The duty of the church is to preach morality not materialism and because Nigerians are very gullible, they are easy victims of deceit. They fall prey to some of these pastors or prophets of doom."

 

He added that the way these pastors live gives a wrong impression of what should be in a church of God, where he said there should be no room for material possessions. According to Pastor Oritsejafor, it is because of the affluent lives that clergymen live that kidnappers target them for ransoms because they see them as money men.