PASTOR & 12 OTHERS ARRESTED FOR ALLEGED KIDNAPPING!

These are troubling times in the vineyard of God for an Ekiti Pastor who was arrested for alleged kidnapping.

According to a report from THE GUARDIAN, residents of Ekiti State who have known Pastor Babatunde Balogun as a man of God were shocked when security agents yesterday paraded him and 12 others as kidnap suspects that have been terrorising the state in the last six months. The arrest was effected by the police and the Department of State Service (DSS).

Also in connection with the arrests, the security agents also declared four persons wanted, urging the public to give useful information on how the culprits could be nabbed.

Those on the wanted list are: Kenneth Felix Ozoh, Jonathan Ozoh, Kehinde Adeleye and Sunday Ogunleye, who were accused of being behind the kidnap of a lecturer at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Dr Femi Omisore, a priest with the Catholic Diocese, Rev Father Emmanuel Akingbade, among others recently kidnapped within the state.

The security agencies alleged that Balogun gave spiritual counseling to the suspected kidnappers and was said to have been sharing from the ransom collected from relatives of their victims.

While parading them in Ado Ekiti , the state capital on Monday, an event attended by Governor Ayodele Fayose, the DSS State Director , Mr Duke Fubara and the Police Commissioner, Mr Etop James, disclosed that the suspects had made confessional statements about their involvement in the criminal activities .

Fubara added that one Gbenga David,a.k.a Oruma, was accosted by his men in Osun State during the investigation and was shot while attempting to escape and is now receiving treatment at an undisclosed hospital.