Victor Akinkuolie, Ado-Ekiti
A Pentecostal Church pastor, located in Omuo-Ekiti, Noah Abraham, is currently cooling his heels with the police following his arrest by the state police command for snatching the wife of his church member along with their three children.
He was also alleged of kidnapping and harbouring nine members of his church.
The cleric who was until his arrest the founder of Christ High Commission Church, Araromi-Ugbesi in Omuo-Oke, Ekiti East local government area of Ekiti State, was also alledged of putting the wife of his choir master in the family way.
He was alleged to have forcefully abducted, harboured and hypnotized nine church members out were of which four minors.
It will be recalled that the cleric, Noah Abraham was sometimes in 2022 arrested by the police for allegedly collecting N310.000 from each member of the church with the aim of getting them tickets to heaven.
According to the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in the command, Mr Sunday Abutu, the Pastor was arrested by the operatives of the Anti-kidnapping squad attached to the Command in collaboration with the officials of National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, (NAPTIP) for alleged kidnapping of over nine persons including minors and impregnating the wife of his choir coordinator.
Abutu explained that some of the hostages are children of his members whom he had hypnotized, brainwashed and set against their parents.
Narrating their ordeals, some of the parents of the children who were held hostage, church members and the legal wife of the Pastor who had staged a protest to the Ekiti State Police Command headquarters, pleaded with the state Government and appropriate authorities to assist them in getting their children, wife and relatives out of the captivity of the Pastor.
The protesters were carrying placards with different inscriptions such as “Save our Soul” “we want our children and wife back from Pastor Abraham” among other inscriptions.
The protesters, alledged the cleric of forcing their children to withdraw from school, while a 27-year-old man who was already working in a company where he was given an official vehicle was made to resign and kept in the church camp without a specific mission.
In an interview, the choir coordinator of the church, Mr Dare Ikuenojo alledged that the Pastor impregnated the mother of his three children.
He said: “I joined the church in Kabba, Kogi State and later rose to become the choir coordinator. One day, the Pastor called me and informed me that my wife has gift of prophesy and can interpret dreams correctly, that I should allow her stay with him within the church premises for a month and work for God which I obliged.
“But suddenly I noticed that my wife was not even willing to see or talk to me. While I was trying to raise eyebrows, the Pastor announced in the church that he had expelled me from the church. He equally made it known to members of the church that he had taken my wife and no one can take her from him.
“I tried my best to take my wife back, but all to no avail until he impregnated her and moved her into his house fully.”
In her testimony, the wife of the Pastor, Mrs Mary Abraham said she has been married to the cleric for over twenty-three years and that they lived together in Kaduna State, until they relocated to Omuo-Ekiti in search of the “aborted heavenly mission”.
The 53-year-old mother of three said her husband said everything was rosy until one night when he asked her to move out because he wanted the wife of the choir coordinator to move into the church premises.
According to her, “he said the present work in his hand requires the woman to be with him and that was how he forced me out of the house and denied me access to my children.
“He withdrew all of my children from school, made their lives miserable, I wept when I saw my son yesterday after police brought him here. I am begging Nigerians to help me take my children from him.”
Similarly, one of the Pastors working under the cleric, who gave his name as Bada Samuel, said his son, who was already working in a reputable institution was asked to resign and held hostage by the cleric.
The Pastor said, “even when I lodged complaint at the police station, I was given access to two of my three children but on our way home he called them and asked them to run back which they did.
“He is always telling us that there are curses and evil spirit working against us, he would ask us to sell our property and bring the money to him. I have invested almost seven million naira in the church, I am left with nothing. Even my children don’t want to see me, I don’t know what he did to them.” he lamented.
Another old woman who is an elder sister to Pastor Abraham , Mrs Janet Adenoye, alleged that he took almost a million naira from her on different occasions on the account that he wanted to cleanse her of evil spirit.
In an interview, Pastor Abraham stated that the heaven ticket saga which trended in the media was his first assignment, saying he is done with what God had sent him on earth to do and he was ready to go back to his creator.
He claimed that he was fulfilled because he had concluded his assignments as directed by God while declining to give any reason for his actions despite several prodding questions.
The spokesperson of the Ekiti State Police Command, said the cleric is currently detained at the Criminal Investigation Department of the command, while the victims were with the officials of the NAPTIP as investigation was ongoing on the matter.
Recall that Pastor Abraham was arrested on April 27, 2022 in Omuo-Ekiti after he assembled over 40 persons in a camp and collected N310,000 from them as ticket fee to heaven but was granted bail at a Magistrate court in Ado-Ekiti.