A 45-year-old senior pastor with the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Ola Olayode, has been arrested for allegedly supplying arms and ammunition to Owonikoko John, a 36-year-old Unit Commandant of the Vigilante Group of Nigeria (VGN), for alleged robbery.
The Ogun State Police Command informed that John was the mastermind of several nefarious crimes that took place at Obalende and other areas of the state. John was arrested along Sagamu-Ijebu-Ode-Benin Highway during an operation led by Assistant Commissioner of Police, ACP Omosanyi Adeniyi, the Area Commander, Ijebu-Ode. Upon his arrest, John was found in possession of a gun and, in his confessional statement, he allegedly fingered an Inspector of Police, simply identified as Ola, as the supplier of the gun in his possession. It was learned that it was in a bid to absolve himself of any violations that Pastor Olayode, who is also an Inspector in the spy police, fingered a police officer as the person who sold the gun to him that he has been using.
The pastor told our correspondent that he indeed sold his pump-action rifle to the suspected armed robber with necessary caution but begged for mercy. “If I had known, I would not have done it that way.”
The embattled pastor explained that he attended Holy Primary School, Ekiti State, and dropped out in Junior Secondary School 3 at A.U.D Secondary School, Ikole-Ekiti, Ekiti State. Giving a background of his endeavors in life, the suspect told the police that after school, he came to his mother’s place in Akure and learned driving for a year. “It was in my mother’s place that I learned how to drive, at Opese Garage, and worked for two years in that garage. In 2005, I worked with the former Chairman of Akure South Local Government. On November 25, 1997, I started working as a driver at the Redeemed Church. I was attached to Pastor Shola Adeyeye, who was a senior pastor at the time, but I married in 2008 and stopped working with him. After I returned to the Redeemed Camp in 2008, about ten senior drivers were sent to Police Training School, Ikeja in 2010 to train as spy police for three months, where I became a spy police.
“It was the mission that sent us for the training. “I passed out from the training school as a constable, but in 2017, I applied for a refresher course at the Police Training School, Ikeja, where I was given Inspector rank; since then, I have been called Inspector Ola. I was issued a warrant card and a certificate because I am not a regular Police. When I went for the refresher, the mission gave me N50,000. I added N50,000, and the boss I was driving for at that time also gave me N50,000.
“I was invited by the Police on a Wednesday when I was preparing to travel to Ibadan with my boss. I was informed that some people were in my house to take my wife to the police station. Upon getting to our Divisional Police Station, the Divisional Police Officer asked if I was the Inspector who sold a gun to an armed robber. I replied that I didn’t sell a gun to an armed robber. I explained that officials of the VGN bought a gun from me, but they were referred to me by one Omooba, a well-known person in my area.”
Meanwhile, I bought my first gun, which was a double barrel for hunting monkeys, grass cutters, and ducks. It was one of the pastors who helped me to buy the gun from the police who had worked with them as a chaplain. He helped me obtain its license with a number before he handed it over to me. “I later realized that the gun was heavy and decided to change it. I called Omooba, that since VGN officials work with guns, I should sell it to them. I didn’t know that I should not have transferred the gun in that manner, but to return it to the Police station or contact the person who helped me buy it. I called Omooba, whom I had known for a long time, who works as a VGN official at Mowe. Omooba then introduced me to Olaifa, his colleague. It was Olaifa who later introduced me to John. Omooba and Olaifa came to meet me initially at my Ice block factory to inspect the gun and left but came back later with John and four others; they all came in VGN uniforms. I told them that they must register the gun because the gun has a number. I sold the gun to them for N210,000.
The following week, I was called and told that the gun has been licensed, and I didn’t know anything since 2020. “After that time, I added some money to the N210,000 and bought a pump-action 6 rounds. I bought it for N290,000. The same man who helped me buy my first gun helped me buy it.
In February 2021, John asked for my number when they came to buy the gun because he heard people calling me Inspector; he assumed I was a regular Police, but I am not a regular Police; I’m a spy police. I called Omooba that John called me that their boss needs a pump-action, and I immediately called the man who assisted me in buying the first one that I no longer need a gun.”
He gave the man a reason that, “I don’t want to have anything to do with a gun again because I do not have time to hunt animals. That was why when they came back, I offered the gun to them at N350,000, but N340,000 was paid. I started as a driver at the camp in 1997. I was ordained in 2014 as a Deacon. In 2019, I was ordained as an Assistant Pastor, but this year at the just concluded convention, I was ordained as a pastor. I am a part-time pastor.” Begging the government over his predicament, Pastor Olayode said, ”The government should show me mercy because if I had known, I would not have done it that way. John explains why he joined cultism.
Meanwhile, John on his own claimed he belongs to a community security outfit, the VGN, and that the group is one of the security outfits complementing the efforts of security agencies in Ogun State. He said he hails from Ilugun Asalu, in Abeokuta. He also explained that he couldn’t go further in education when he dropped out of school due to a lack of money and had to first work at Abeokuta North Local Government, Akomoje, in Abeokuta, but moved to Berger in Lagos, where he was managing a beer parlour.
He narrated further, “My older brother later decided that we should move to Ososa Town for a farming business, where we grew red pepper and did some irrigation work, but due to the farm’s collapse, I went into hatching fishes, planting okra, and selling fingerlings. Thereafter, I began selling pepper soup, jollof rice, noodles, and eggs at a beer parlour within the neighborhood and also operated a movie viewing center to provide entertainment service for the beer parlour. Things were going fine then; it was about that time I got married too.” He disclosed that he had been initiated into cultism by his friends before completing his secondary school education. In his words: “I was a member of Aiye till I got admission into Abraham Adesanya, but I dropped out and went to Ososa Town when I realized I was being oppressed by some members of the Eiye group in Ososa. I decided to relate with some members of Aiye in school at that time. I was not initiated into Aiye at Ososa, though I was involved in the group’s activities, but I only relate with them in Ososa. It’s not that I attend their meetings; all I do is to call them in case anything happens where I was selling pepper soup, I bought a car for N150,000 by making a payment of N75,000 in installments. “I bought the car with the profits made from sales of pepper soup, and I had used about 500 fishes for pepper soups from my hatchery business before the business finally collapsed. I usually use the car for my errands to get ingredients from the market,” he narrated.
He explained that because he experienced so much oppression from cult members from time to time, he had to leave the vicinity. “I left that area and moved to an area where I rented my own house and established my own beer parlour business, where I also sell pepper soup, noodles, eggs, and fruit salads.” He said it was in the course of his daily business that some suspected fraudsters he called ‘Yahoo Boys’ introduced him to some fraudulent activities, in addition to his business and trading in Bitcoin (BTC).
“Though I had left my former business location, the Eiye cultists still came after me to cause destruction in my shop.”
