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| Olusegun Omoniyi and his church |
A cleric identified as Pastor Olusegun
Omoniyi, 45, of the Christ Apostolic Church in the Onigbogbo, Atan Ota area of
Ogun State, was allegedly abducted and tortured by some members of the Oodua
People’s Congress (OPC).
Omoniyi who had also gone into hiding
after he was rescued by policemen from the Sango Area Command, said he feared
for his life as the OPC members had threatened to recapture and kill him.
According to a report by Punch Metro,
the OPC members were acting on the instruction of some relatives of Omoniyi’s
late wife, Omolade, who had vowed to deal with him over the sickness and
subsequent death of the woman.
The cleric and his wife was reportedly
married in 1999 and had a set of twins in 2000 who were said to have died
shortly after they were born, and since the death of the children, the couple
had not been able to have any child, which resulted in pressures from Omolade’s
family.
Early 2015, the wife was reported to
have left the cleric despite entreaties from church leaders and relatives of
the husband. 7 months after separating from the husband, the 42-year-old was
attacked by a strange illness.
Pastor Omoniyi said, “She had told me
that her family members didn’t want her to continue living with me, but I
begged her to stay.
“However, sometime in 2015, I went for a
church meeting when some of her family members came. They took away her
property. Attempts at getting her family members to reconcile us were abortive
as they said she had made her choice.
“However, in July 2015, I was told she
was sick. On the instruction of the church leadership, I went with some other
elders to give her N50,000. But her brother did not allow us to see her, saying
I should go alone to see her. We refused.
“On February 6, 2016, while I was
leading a church programme around 10am, four men entered the church. Two of
them were OPC members and the others – Adebayo and Stephen – were my wife’s
relatives. While I was on the altar, the two OPC members said they had come to
take me away.
“I told them that I would not follow
them since I did not know where they were taking me to. They beat me up and one
of them showed me a gun and said if I didn’t cooperate, he would kill me.”
Omoniyi said he was thrown into a car
belonging to his wife’s eldest brother, adding that he was blindfolded
throughout the journey.
The cleric explained that he later found
himself in Ijoko, the camp of the OPC, saying the men tortured him before
taking him inside a clinic where his wife had been admitted.
“In one of the rooms, I saw my wife on
the bed. Her legs were swollen and there was blood all over the place. I asked
her why she left the house and what I did wrong
“While talking to her, my in-laws
started beating me. I have never suffered such torture. I told my wife right
there that God would judge our matter,” he added.
He said he sneaked into the clinic’s
toilet where he made a call to a church leader informing him of his location,
adding that the latter informed the police who stormed the area and rescued
him.
It was learnt that Omolade died the
following day. The church leadership was reported to have sent a delegation to
condole with the family, and Omoniyi also accompanied the men.
It was learnt that the deceased’s family
allegedly attacked the group, insisting that Omoniyi must take his wife’s
corpse with him.
“To appease them, I told them to find
where they would bury her and I would bear part of the cost, but they refused.
“As I was leaving, they blocked the road
and said they would burn the two vehicles we took there. The OPC members, who
had earlier abducted me, came and dragged me to where the corpse was.
“After beating me again, they put me on
the corpse and said I must die with her. They put me in a car with the corpse.
I couldn’t recognise anybody until I saw some policemen who rescued me the
second time,” he said.
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