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From Molly Kilete, Abuja
The Nigeria Police Force, yesterday paraded a 32-year-old man, in connection with the attack on the senior pastor and General Overseer of Omega Fire Ministries Worldwide, Apostle Johnson Suleman.
The suspect, Yusuf Isah, from Okene, Kogi State, and his gang members had sometime in October, 2022, attacked the convoy of Suleiman along the Benin-Auchi Road in Edo State.
During the attack, six persons, including three policemen attached to the cleric were killed.
Parading the suspect in Abuja, Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi,said the suspect was arrested by operatives of the Intelligence Rapid Team (IRT), following intensive investigation.
He said the suspect was in possession of five AK 47 riffles ,two K2 assault rifles, and 180 live ammunition at the time of his arrest.
According to Adejobi, two members of the seven-man gang, were gunned-down in separate encounters with the police, while the remaining four are still at large.
Speaking to the journalists, the suspect confessed that he joined the gang in 2021 after he was freed from Olokuta Correctional Centre where he was on remand since 2019 for alleged involvement in armed robbery.
According to him, the instruction given by their leader who is still at large was to assassinate Apostle Suleman but that somehow the cleric was lucky to have escaped death.
The suspect, who maintained that he didn’t know the person that ordered the assassination of Suleman, as the assailants contacted the leader of the gang who promised to pay him N2million. He said his group specialized in kidnaping for ransom and would not release their victims, except they pay ransom.
He confessed that between 2021 and 2023, they carried out about four kidnapping operations including the attack on the convoy of Suleiman, before the gang was eventually busted by the police.
The suspect also confessed that the gang was responsible for the kidnap of a popular oil dealer at Jetu, Auchi,in 2022, where they obtained a ransom of about N70 million before his release.
The gang equally carried out the kidnap of a businessman along Benin – Agbor express road in 2022 and collected N20m ransom from the victim’s family.
Their last attempt at kidnapping after the failed attack on the Apostle was along Owo – Ikare road, where they were heavily engaged and repelled by the police escort accompanying their target.
