One RCCG pastor, four other kidnapped victims regain freedom

More revelations emerged on Saturday over the kidnapping of a pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, the son of a foremost artiste, James Iroha, popularly known in the soap opera, New Masquerade, as Gringory, with the RCCG pastor, Chidinma Ibilegbo said to have escaped from the kidnappers contrary to claims that she the police rescued her and others.

Ibilegbo, Sunday Tribune reliably gathered, escaped from her captors and trekked for three hours in the bush before she got help from a motorcyclist, who took her to the police.

It was after she narrated her ordeal to the policemen, who had been briefed about their kidnap on Thursday, that she was taken to the Commissioner of Police’s office, where she gave clues that led to the rescue of the four other victims, Sunday Tribune learnt.

Ibilegbo, a pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God; Chimela Iroha, Okoro Olowukwe, Chidioze Eluwa and Ndubusi Owuabueze had been abducted by kidnappers at J3 Area in Ogbere axis of Ogun State, on Thursday, while travelling from the Eastern part of the country to Lagos.

Sunday Tribune learnt that hoodlums numbering about 10 came out of a forest around the area, stopped their commercial vehicle and led them into the forest.

While narrating her ordeal, Ibilegbo maintained that while in the kidnappers’ captivity, she prayed to God that they would fall into a sleep and when they did, she sneaked out from where they were kept and was able to escape.

The pastor told Sunday Tribune sources that the cyclist then transported her from the location he found her to somewhere where they saw policemen and that it was after explaining her situation to the policemen, who were already aware of their kidnap, that they told her that the Commissioner of Police would like to see her.

She noted that it was during her meeting with the Commissioner of Police that she was able to describe her trajectory, which helped the police in locating the other victims.

While briefing newsmen on Saturday evening at the Police Officers’ Mess,  Abeokuta,  the Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Bashir Makama, said all the abductees were rescued unhurt.

Makama said the tactical rescue operation by his men, with the support of local vigilance group and hunters, paved way for the rescue of the victims.

The police boss said his men were deployed in large numbers to the area where the incident happened and that their efforts yielded positive result, when the only female among them, Ibilegbo, was rescued in the early hours of Saturday.

Makama said contrary to reports that all the five victims were ministers of RCCG who were heading to the Redemption Camp for Ministers’ Conference, only Ibilegbo was a pastor with the church.

He, however, said four suspects whom he referred to as “soft targets” were in police net, saying efforts were on to arrest the real ones behind the crime.

One of the victims, Iroha, who identified himself as son of James Iroha alias “Gringory” of the New Masquerade, while narrating his ordeal in the hands of the abductors, said he was manhandled

He said the hoodlums made them to trek 30 kilometres in the forest and forced them to sleep in the swamp from the day of their abduction till the time they were rescued by the police.