Unknown gunmenk in the evening of Saturday, June 13, 2015 invaded a branch of the popular Living Faith Church, also known as Winners Chapel, and kidnapped the head pastor, Seyi Adekunle during a prayer session with other pastors ahead of the Sunday services.
According to Vanguard, the gunmen numbering five were said to have stormed the church at about 7.50 pm when the pastors were praying in the main auditorium of the church and shot sporadically into the air before grabbing the pastor and bundling him into their car and drove off.
A source in the church whose identity was not disclosed said, “Normally on Saturdays, we have a number of activities but the pastors prayer session comes last, it was while the session was in progress that the boys came in, shot into the air and took our pastor away.”
Sources reveal that the abducted pastor who heads Province 2 of the Church located along IBB Way, opposite the Margaret Ekpo International Airport has been in charge of the church since 2014.
The source added, “He came here in 2014 and has been doing a lot work through the construction of a massive complex for the church auditorium and office accommodation which might have given the kidnappers the impression that he has money to give them as ransom.
“There was no policeman on duty here yesterday when the incident happened but this morning we had to request for some policemen from the Airport Police Station close by and these six policemen you see here were deployed to forestall any recurrence of what took place last night.”
The Police Public Relations Officer of Cross River State, Mr Hogan Bassey, said that the kidnappers are yet to make any demands.
He said, “But we are closing on them and very soon I shall inform you on how far we have gone.”
