8th August, 2024
By Okafor Ofiebor/Port Harcourt
There are indications that Pastor Kingsley Anosike of Light Intercessors church branch located at Chimezie Street in the Ebelu axis of Oyigbo Local Government Area of Rivers State and three other persons who were kidnapped in the church five days ago have regained freedom.
It was gathered that gunmen dressed in military camouflage suspected to be herders at about 3.00am on Friday, 2nd August, 2024 invaded Light Intercessors church branch during a programme and shot sporadically for at least 20 minutes before taking the Pastor and the church members away.
The three other ministers abducted were attached to a guest Bishop, Blessed Moses Uzuoma, the presiding Pastor of Endtime Fire Intercessory Ministries.
The kidnappers had demanded N100 million ransom, but later reduced the ransom to N20 million.
It was, however, gathered that the victims regained freedom on Wednesday, August 7th.
A member of the church who pleaded anonymity because of sensitivity of the matter confirmed the release of the pastor and the three others to our reporter.
Our source was, however, silent on whether the church paid ransom or not before the victims regained freedom.
The gunmen were said to have targeted Bishop Uzuoma who was a guest Minister at the church.
The source claimed that the gunmen shot directly at the Bishop who was preaching at the church altar at the time of their invasion.
However, the Bishop was unhurt and literally ‘vanished’ to the astonishment of the gunmen, the source claimed.
Angry with the development, the gunmen kidnapped the host pastor and the three ministers in the entourage of Bishop Uzuoma.
It was further learnt that one of the church worker of Endtime Fire Intercessory Ministries who was caught by bullet on the leg during the sporadic shooting was rushed to the hospital after the arrival of the police.
The source also revealed that the kidnappers, who were suspected to be criminal herders established contact with the church hours after whisking the pastor and three ministers away, demanding N100 million ransom.
The spokesperson for the Rivers State Police Command, SP Grace Iringe Koko was yet to respond to enquiry on the incident by our reporter at the time of filing the report.
