Lagos: Pastor Sends Assassins After Another Cleric Over Popularity

The pastor of the Life House Ministry, Ojo Barracks, Benjamin Akinsanya, has been arrested by the Lagos State police for allegedly sending a six-man gang to kill one pastor Janet Ogunshola.

Akinsanya was arraigned before the Lagos State Magistrates’ Court in Igbosere, on Tuesday.

The cleric was brought before the court alongside Darlington Orji and Liberty Elvis on five counts bordering on attempted murder and belonging to an unlawful society, the Aiye Confraternity.

The defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges.

It was reported that the pastor allegedly sponsored the other defendants and others still at large to kill Ogunshola for becoming more popular than him in church ministry in the Ojo area of the state.

A further report had it that Akinsanya allegedly paid the suspects N500,000 to terminate the life of the pastor of the Glorious Chapel Ministry on Adeleye Street, Ojo, to stop her from being popular than him.

The police prosecutor, C. C. Onwumere, told the court that the defendants committed the offences sometime in October 2019 at No. 1 Adeleye Street, Ojo, adding that they and the others still at large, armed themselves with guns and invaded the residence of the victim with intent to kill her.

Onwumere further stated that the suspects did not find Ogunshola at home so they shot sporadically into her residence and left.

Following the incident, Ogunshola sent a petition to the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu.

Ogunshola claimed that the issue happened when a woman visited her to complain of a problem that she had been praying about in Akinsanya’s church.

She further stated that she prayed for the woman with her warriors and she left.

She said, “After about a month, the woman came back to my church to give testimony that the prayer had solved her problem. She also stated that she had been battling with the problem for the past eight years at Akinsanya’s church without a solution.”

“When Akinsanya heard of the testimony, he vowed to kill me because the almighty God used me to solve the problem of his former church member.”

Following the petition, the police arrested Akinsanya, who later led the operatives to arrest two of his accomplices, while the others escaped.

The presiding magistrate, A. A. Famobiwo, admitted the defendants to bail in the sum of N100,000 each with two sureties each in like sum and ordered that they remain in the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Service till the perfection of their bail conditions.

He adjourned the matter till December 12, 2019.