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Ngozi Uwujare
These days when kidnapping has become rampant, it will still come as a surprise to hear that an arrested kidnapper is a man of God. It came as a big shock recently when the Anti-kidnapping Unit of the Kaduna State Police Command arrested 26-year-old Pastor James Clement, self-acclaimed General Overseer of House of Jesus Miracle and Salvation. His crime: He kidnapped himself.
Did I hear you say what? Yes, the man kidnapped himself. The purpose was to force his parents to comply with his desire to get married to a woman of his choice in March.
As far as Clement was concerned, resorting to such extreme action was necessary as his parents had twice rejected his choice of a future partner. He felt he needed to put them through some harrowing time as a punishment for their interference. So, suddenly he was abducted and his abductors were demanding N5million ransom and his parents started running up and down trying to raise five million naira.
When his abduction was reported on January 25, 2020, at the Police Area Command in Kakuri, the case was transferred to the Anti-kidnapping Squad. It took detectives a few days to crack the case.
In the end, another pastor in his church was found complicit in his abduction. When apprehended, he took detectives to his home where the supposedly abducted GO was found having the time of his life while waiting for the ransom from his parents.
Presently, 26-year-old Pastor James Clement of the House of Jesus Miracle and Salvation and his fellow clergyman, Assistant Pastor Judge Otokpa, 23, are guests of anti-Kidnapping policemen.
Surprisingly, the suspect had a good background having attended Christ Fruit Primary School and Great Model Secondary in Kaduna before he went on to a Bible college for two years and thereafter started his church in 2014 where until his arrest he remained General Overseer.
In explaining his action to Saturday Sun, he said: “This is the second time my parents would cancel my proposed marriage to someone I wanted to marry. The woman I want to marry is Victoria; we did our introduction in November 2019 and my parents were there when we fixed March 2020 for the marriage proper. But as we started planning for the wedding in January, my mother started insisting that I must cancel the marriage. I asked her, what is the problem, the only thing she said was that the marriage is not in accordance with our culture and tradition.”
Clement who hailed from Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State added: “This was the same way my parents scuttled my wedding in 2018 when I wanted to marry a girl of my choice. They cancelled the marriage after the introduction. They said something about culture and tradition.”
He claimed he pleaded with his parents to no avail to let the March 2020 marriage hold. “I sent elders to them but they turned them down. It was painful to me that this was coming up after I had done the introduction in November 2019”.
He was so frustrated he felt he needed to punish his parents. Enlisting the help of his assistant pastor, Judge Otokpa, a native of Ado LGA, Benue State, Clement staged his abduction.
“I kidnapped myself and went to hide in the house of Pastor Otokpa for three days while he phoned my parents and demanded for N5million,” he confessed.
In his own opinion, he didn’t do anything wrong because he had no criminal intent. “I did that so that my parents would also feel the pain I am passing through,” he said.
Unfortunately, the scheme is a criminal offence in the eye of the law and what was worse, it ended in his arrest. Otokpa, the accomplice also explained his role in the scam.
“I phoned his parents to demand N5million. At first, they appeared to be cooperating. After he spent three days in my house, I decided to visit his folks to ask them if they heard any news about their son who was kidnapped. But they alerted detectives who came in and arrested me.”
He took the detectives to his house where the supposedly abducted Pastor James clement was hiding and the duo was hauled over to police cell.
“They didn’t pay any ransom to us,” Otokpa insisted. “We only threaten his parents in order to allow him to go ahead with his planned wedding.”
On Wednesday, February 5, Saturday Sun met the suspect’s mother at the office of the Anti-Kidnapping Unit where she was wailing and pleading with the police to release her son. “He didn’t collect any money from me,” she cried, “And I am now ready to allow him to go ahead with his marriage in March. Please release my son to me.”
Her prayers, however, will not be answered as Commissioner of Police, Mr Umar Muri told Saturday Sun the case, still under investigation will be wrapped up soon and the suspect will be charged to court.
