Five Redeemed Church Pastors kidnapped

Five pastors of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) have been kidnapped.

The General Overseer of the Church, Pastor Enoch Adeboye announced the kidnap of five pastors  on Friday during a talk at the Redeemed Camp along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

The pastors were on their way to attend the church’s ministers’ conference in Lagos.

Adeboye said the abduction took place on Thursday along the Ijebu-Ode axis.

He charged the congregation to pray for the release of the abductees, saying it was the first time such incident was happening.

“As a father, how do you think I should feel to hear that five of my children have been kidnapped while on their way to attend the Ministers Conference?” he asked

The Public Relations Officer of the Police Command, Abimbola Oyeyeimi, told journalists on Friday that five people were kidnapped.

He, however, said the identity of the victims were yet to be established.

The Redeemed Church believed to be Nigeria’s largest pentecostal church, has thousands of pastors in its churches Around the world.

The church is yet to release an official statement on the matter.

Speaking on the kidnap, Mr Oyeyemi said those involved were travelling on a commercial bus when they were kidnapped.

He said the Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Bashir Makama, had led a police team to the crime scene to rescue the victims.

“Through surveillance, we have got to know their location but we don’t want to attack them (kidnappers) so that we won’t put the victims’ lives in danger. Their lives are more important to us.

The kidnap of the five passengers joins a growing list of kidnap cases in the South-west and across Nigeria.

Spokesman for the police, Frank Mba in a statement said that Tactical and Operational assets of the police have been deployed with the Commissioner of Police, Ogun State Command taking the lead-role in the search and rescue operations.