01122019 - 13 states struggle for 7.5 metric tonnes of rice

SUNDAY VANGUARD, DECEMBER 1, 2019, PAGE 43
FROM CHURCH TO SHRINE
‘My son will
be found’
...mum of boy stolen during service vows
after oath-taking at Akure shrine
• Church officials also take oath
• Police dismiss claim of foot-dragging
By Dayo Johnson, Akure
It is 21 days since one-year-old Gold
Kolawole went missing during a Sunday
service at Sotitobire Prayer University in
Solagbade area of Osinle Quarters, Oke-Aro,
Akure.
But the police seem to have lost steam in
finding the missing boy while members of
the public ponder on the mysterious
disappearance of the toddler at the church
creche where 14 minders kept watch.
Last Thursday, minders and parents of the
missing boy, Temitope and Modupe
Kolawole, took part in oath-taking at Odoro
Shrine within the palace of the Deji of Akure,
Oba Adelusi Aladetoyinbo.
Palace sources informed Sunday Vanguard
that the General Overseer of the church,
Prophet Samuel Babatunde Alfa, did not take
part in the oath-taking
He was said not to have been implicated in
the statements made by the parents of the
missing boy at the palace.
The sources said Ondo State Police
Command took over the case after the oathtaking.
It was, however, not known what would
happen after the oath had been taken by the
minders and parents of the missing boy.
Confirming that the oath-taking had been
done, the Chief Press Secretary to the Deji,
Michael Adeyeye, said the exercise took place
on Thursday.
“The children’s teachers alongside the
parents of the missing boy
took part in the oath-taking
at the palace”, Adeyeye said.
On why the General
Overseer was left out of the
exercise, Adeyeye said he
was not indicted by the
parents of the missing boy in
their statements at the palace.
On the next line of action,
the spokesperson said, “That
is all for now. The police have
taken over the matter”.
Sunday Vanguard gathered
that, traditionally, days after
oath-taking in situations like
that, perpetrators would be
revealed.
The sources declined to be
specific on when this could
happen but “within a number
of days the whole truth would
be revealed traditionally and
the whereabouts of the boy
would be known”.
One of the sources added,
“It would further be revealed
Nothing is
impossible for
God to do. I
have absolute
faith and still
hopeful that I
will still see
Gold, my dear
son. I won’t
lose hope no
matter what
anybody does
on this matter
if the boy is still alive or dead”.
Meanwhile, tongues kept wagging over the
protest by half naked women in support of
the General Overseer of the church.
The old women who wore only bra
wrappers stormed the church auditorium and
spoke one after the other exonerating their
prophet of wrong doing.
They vowed to go to any
length to ensure that “the Man
of God was not rubbished and
his ministry’s image rubbed in
the mud”.
According to them, the
enemies were jealous of the
growth of the church and
wanted to frustrate the good
work of the prophet.
“We are behind you. You are
unmovable and unshakeable.
They have failed. We will
triumph. It is outright blackmail
and mudslinging by agents of
darkness”, they said.
Critics alleged that some top
police officers who are
members of the church may
have been suppressing
investigation into the case of the
missing boy hence the nonarrest
by police detectives three
weeks after the incident.
Meanwhile, a human rights
group, the Sunshine for
Integrity and Justice, has
frowned at the way the police were handling
the matter.
Its coordinator, Odion Matthew, alleged that
the police command was lackadaisical in its
investigation into the matter.
“It would be a thing of shame and ineptitude
for Ondo State Police Command not to have
taken any serious step on the matter. A whole
human being was missing, not an object and
the police seem to have kept quiet about it; it
is unfortunate”, Matthew said.
“For over two weeks now, nobody has been
arrested or interrogated among the care givers
in the church under whose care the boy was
missing.
“How could a boy have gone missing
among many children at the juvenile section
of the church and the police are keeping
quiet?
“This is not good enough for a country like
Nigeria. We believe we are not in a jungle.
So the police must act on this matter.
“The perceived silence of the police on the
matter, and the experience in the past in this
country, is luring one to believe that there is
an attempt to let the matter suffer a natural
death.”
He called on the Inspector General of
Police, Mr Mohammed Adamu, to order for a
full investigation into the matter.
Sunday Vanguard reliably gathered the
state Police Commissioner, Adie Udie, has
ordered that the mobile phones of the General
Overseer and the father of the missing boy
be seized by police detectives investigating
the incident.
It was said that the command was desperate
to get to the root of the matter hence the
seizure of the phones.
The police, it was learnt, may have
commenced a forensic
analysis of the calls
received before the
kidnap incident and
after on the mobile
phones of the
General Overseer
and the father of the
missing boy.
The police have
however denied that
they were foot
dragging on the
case.
Police spokesman
Femi Joseph said, “lt is
not when police arrest
people indiscriminately that you know that
we are working.
“The Commissioner of Police invited all
those concerned including the General
Overseer of the church, the children’s teachers,
ushers and parents of the missing boy.
“They were drilled personally by the state
Police Commissioner for over three hours. So
the allegation that we are not doing anything
is far from being true.
“The matter has been handed over to the
Criminal Investigative Department for proper
investigation.
“The police are no magician. We are sad
about the incident and would unravel those
behind the kidnapping of the boy during
church service.
“We are digging deep into the mystery
surrounding the disappearance of the boy and
l want to assure you that we will come up with
the facts and will make them open to the
public”.
The General Overseer of the church where
the boy went missing, Prophet Alfa, had
insisted that his hands were clean on the case.
“I was on the altar when the ushers informed
me of what happened in the children church.
I immediately dispatched my pastors and
leaders to attend to the situation”, he had said.
“We finished service that Sunday around
5pm and I invited them and after I heard their
story I invited the police. This is the first time
such incident will happen since we started
this church”.
The mother of the missing boy, Modupe,
while speaking to Sunday Vanguard, said she
was still worried that the police were yet to
make any arrest.
“l am highly disappointed that nobody has
been arrested since my son disappeared in
that church”, she said.
“Our telephones were seized and they just
returned them. The police said they have
interrogated the children’s teachers but no
arrest made since.
“But l have faith and hopeful that I will still
see my son. The devil will be put to shame at
the end of the day”.
When told it was going to three weeks, the
mother of the missing boy said, “Nothing is
impossible for God to do. I have absolute faith
and still hopeful that I will still see Gold, my
dear son. I won’t lose hope no matter what
anybody does on this matter.
“Those expected to act are foot-dragging
because we are not well connected. But God
is still on the throne and would fight for us,
the down trodden.
“Let them continue to use their power to
suppress the matter. The truth will surely
prevail”.