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By Christopher Oji
The Lagos State Police Command has arrested a female pastor and nine members of her church for allegedly stoning an Oro traditional worshiper to death in Lagos.
The church, Truth and Spirit Prophetic Church, at the Sanni Taiwo Lawal Street, Poposhola area of Oko-Oba was having its monthly vigil and prophetic hour when Oro traditional worshipers were also having their vigil.
A witness, Benedicta, said: “While we were having our vigil, the Oro traditional worshiper came into our church and ordered us to stop worship, but our pastor was trying to explain to them that we were inside the church and not outside the premises.
“It was when they started beating us that some of us ran away, while the courageous ones resisted the Oro worshipers.
“It was later that we heard that one of them died. But what is the offence we committed for doing our thing inside the church?”
A senior police officer from Oko-Oba police station, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “While we were in the Station, at about 6.30am, we got a report that a church was about to be set ablaze by Oro traditional worshipers; so we raced to the church and discovered there was a serious fight between Oro traditional worshipers and the church members.
“We were told that while the church was having its vigil, the Oro worshipers were also having their sacrament. The Oro worshipers, who felt that the church should not be robbing shoulders with them, ordered the church to stop their programme and the church refused; so there was a fight between the two worshipers.
“During the fight, a traditional worshiper, Akeem Agboola, 25, was stoned to death by the church members. We arrested the pastor of the church, Mercy Okocha, 50, and nine other members of the church, while the body of the Oro worshiper was evacuated and deposited at a public morgue for autopsy.”
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer! PPRO), SP Benjamin Hundeyin, who confirmed the story, said that 10 people, including the pastor of the church, had been arrested, while investigation was ongoing.
