A cleric, Pastor Wisdom Ameka of Kingdom Church, Iju Ishaga area of Lagos, had a nasty experience while he was preaching to the congregation during a vigil church service.
P.M.EXPRESS reports that while Pastor Ameka was preaching, some undisclosed number of armed robbers invaded the church, pointed the gun at him, robbed him of his belongings and escaped.
The alleged invasion threw the members of church into confusion as they ran helter skelter and escaped through various ways while abandoning Pastor Ameka with the robbers.
The dare devil robbers took Pastor Ameka’s belongings including his phone and ATM card, which they used to withdraw money and equally transferred to another account.
The Police did not however, state if the robbers went to the church as part of the congregation during the service before they struck.
The alleged robbery operation was reported to the Police, who moved into action and eventually arrested one of the suspects, Aruna Badri and transferred him to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Yaba, for further investigation.
After rounds of interrogation, the Police found the 32-year old Badri culpable for conspiracy and armed robbery under the Criminal Laws of Lagos State and consequently charged him before the Yaba Magistrate Court for the alleged offence.
The Police alleged that the defendant conspired with others now large and invaded the church armed with guns during the vigil and robbed Pastor Ameka of his belongings before they escaped.
The Police said that the alleged offence contravened Sections 297 and 299 of the criminal code, which attracts several years of imprisonment.
However, the Court did not take his plea when he was arraigned following a motion moved by the prosecutor, Inspector Modupe Olaluwoye, asking the Court to refer the matter to the DPP for legal advice because the alleged offence involved arms.
The Presiding Magistrate, Mrs. Linda Balogun, ordered his remand in custody at the Correctional Centre pending the outcome of the DPP’s legal advice and directed the prosecutor to duplicate the file and send it to the DPP.
The matter was adjourned for mention for the report of the DPP’s advice to be made available, which will determine if the matter will be transferred to the High Court or not over jurisdiction.