Godwin Ayenugha, the founder of Cherubim and Seraphim Church of Christ (C&S) in Igbokoda area of Ondo State, was arrested on Monday over an attempted kidnapping case.
Prophet Ayenugha was nabbed with his accomplice, Ibukun Adetigba, by officers of the Police Command in Ondo State.
The duo conspired to allegedly threaten Segun Omosaye in Okitipupa Local Government Area of the State with kidnap.
They were jointly paraded before journalists alongside some other criminal suspects at the headquarters of the police in Akure.
Speaking, Gbenga Adeyanju, Ondo State Commissioner of Police, said the C&S prophet claimed he was a spiritual father to the kidnap victim.
Adeyanju explained that Ayenugha faked a ‘vision’ for Omosaye that he saw in his dream that he would be kidnapped.
He said that the disgruntled prophet sent a text to the victim by using a mobile phone in order to dupe and scare him with a kidnap attempt.
The Police boss disclosed that the victim was first kidnapped by some unknown hoodlums for two months before he regained his freedom.
“On September 26, 2018, Omosaye Segun of Okitipupa who was kidnapped by unknown gunmen on November 30, 2017 but regained his freedom on January 5, 2018, received text messages from his abductors,” Adeyanju said.
“The abductors claimed they were responsible for his first kidnap, and they were coming back to kidnap him again and if he restisted he would be killed.
“On receipt of this complaint, detectives swung into action and through intelligence gathering, we arrested one Ibukun Adetigba and Prophet Godwin Ayenugha, founder of the C&S Church in Igbokoda.”
Adeyanju added that the mobile phone (Techno handset), which was used in sending the text, had been recovered from the two culprits.
In an interrogation with journalists, Prophet Ayenugha confessed how he colluded with Adetigha to get money from the victim.
“I do not know anything about his abduction, which happened last year; I only told Adetigha to send him a scary text message. The intention of the message was to scare him so that he can come to me for help, being his spiritual father.
“Actually, I have collected N150, 000 from him with the text message and I gave Adetigha N25, 000. The reason I did this is that i don’t have money; not that i wanted to kidnap him.”
Meanwhile, the Police also arrested some other suspected criminals who were terrorizing the innocent people of Ondo state.
Recovered from these culprits were a Yellow Toyota Bus, stolen television sets, DVD video players and stolen generating set and car batteries.