A Prophet of a Cherubim and Seraphim Church, the Gethesema Zion Church, Godwin Ayenugha, confessed yesterday that he gave a fake prophesy to a church member that he would be kidnapped in order to fraudulently obtain money from him.
Ayenugha, who was arrested by men of the Ondo State Police Command when the victim was eventually kidnapped and ransom collected, said he embarked on the crime because he was broke and needed money desperately in order to settle some financial issues.
The suspect and his accomplice, Ibukun Adetigha, were arrested for their alleged involvement in the kidnap of a member of his church, Omosaye Segun, in Okitipupa Local Government Area of the state.
Ayenugha had instructed Adetigha to send text messages to their victims informing them of their impending kidnap.
Confessing to the crime at the state Police Command Headquarters in Akure, Ayenugha said he was pushed to the crime because of hunger.
He, however, said he had no hand in the last year’s kidnap of the victim.
The suspect said he had earlier informed the victim that he should be prayerful to avoid being kidnapped.
He said: “I gave the prophesy because he believes in me. He gave me money to organise a prayer session for him.
“I am very close to the victim and I have been working and praying for him for some time but I was financially down and had to think of how to get money from him
“I asked one of my church members to text him and one other person to inform them that we are coming to kidnap them. I know they will come to me for spiritual assistance and I eventually collected N150,000 from Omosaye while the other person paid N60,000.
“I did not have any knowledge about his first kidnap because I was in Cameroon but I intend to kidnap them to get cash from them because I need money so badly to feed my family.”
The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Gbenga Adeyanju, who paraded the suspects, explained that the two men were arrested through a network of intelligence gathering by detectives.
He disclosed that the victim, Omosaye Segun, who was kidnapped in November 2017 and regained his freedom in January 2018 after paying ransom, received a text message from the suspects who claimed they were responsible for his kidnap.
According to the police boss, the suspects informed Omosaye that they would be coming for him again to kidnap him, threatening to kill him if they eventually kidnap him this time.
The victim, however, informed the police. Adeyanju said detectives swung into action and arrested the owner of the phone used to send the text message which led to the arrest of the prophet.
He added: “On the receipt of the complaint, detectives from the command swung into action and through intelligence gathering arrested Ibukun Adetigha and later arrested Prophet Godwin Ayenugha, founder of a church at Igbokoda.”
“The Tecno handset that was used in sending the text messages was recovered from them. Upon interrogation, the two suspects confessed to have sent the text messages but denied their involvement in the abduction of the victim.
“Prophet Godwin Ayenugha happened to be the spiritual father of the victim who claimed to have seen vision that the victim would be kidnapped.”
The accomplice, Adetigha, also confessed to the crime, disclosing that the text messages were sent on the order of his spiritual father and confirmed receiving N25,000 from the prophet as part of his share in the deal.
.new telegraph