By Austin Ogwuda, Asaba

It was an intriguing drama of buck-passing few days ago in Asaba, the Delta State capital between a Camerounian security guard and a man who claimed to be a Pentecostal pastor.

The duo are presently in police net for allegedly conspiring with other members of a kidnap gang presently at large to kidnap the three-year-old son of the master of the Camerounian.

The suspects were paraded along with several others involved in different crimes, including kidnapping, during a press briefing by the State Police Command.

*Who's telling the truth? The security guard(left) or Pastor

As soon as the Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Mr. Charles Muka, began the parade of the suspects, the two kidnap suspects had drawn attention to themselves through an outburst of accusations and counter-accusations.

“Aaah!, look at what you have done to me Pastor; you are the cause of this my problem,” cried the Camerounian in an aggrieved tone.

But the Pastor quickly retorted thus: “You are a liar, remember God; you are a bloody liar”.

“Which lies are you are talking about? It is you that talked me into it; otherwise, I could not have fallen into this mess,” the Cameroonian who was a security guard before the kidnap episode lamented once again.

PPRO Muka first paraded the suspects at the premises of the State Police Headquarters before the newshounds proceeded upstairs where the State Police Commissioner, Mamman Ibrahim Tsafe read out a prepared speech cataloguing the various crimes committed and the success of the command in arresting some of them.

And on the Camerounian/Pastor alleged involvement, the CP said: “On the 1st of this month at about 2130 hours, one Yoleme Edoja, female, aged three years was kidnapped at Ughelli. ‘A’ Division Ughelli patrol team working in synergy with a local vigilante traced the suspects to their hide-out and arrested one Emmanuel Obovu, male, a Pastor of Pentecostal African Church Ughelli and Steven William, a Camerounian”.

The Police boss further added that the victim was rescued unhurt at the pastor’s residence and that the gang had demanded N4 million ransom before they were caught.

Most of those around had wondered aloud what could have prompted the Pastor to involve himself in such a dirty deal against the virtue of his calling that ordinarily should make him preach to bring criminals out of crime rather than conniving with them.

But he was vehement in his denial of any form of involvement in the kidnap saga, as he engaged the Camerounian in another heated round of accusations and counter- accusations. Vanguard Metro,VM, intervened at this stage and persuaded him to tell his own side of the story.

Still bristling with anger over what he said was a wrong accusation against him, the Pastor informed that the arrested Cameroonian was a member of his church. According to him: “I am a pastor; I am Pastor Emmanuel Obovu of African Church, a Pentecostal church in Evwreni, Ughelli North.

Let me tell you: I was arrested due to the lie this boy (Camerounian) told against me. I am innocent of the crime. I have never, never seen that girl in my life or the mother. I don’t know where they came from.

I only know he is a member of my church. He came to my house on Wednesday evening with this young girl. I asked who the girl was, he said she was the sister’s daughter who just came from Cameroun, that he was just coming from Bayelsa.

Even the motorcylist that brought him spent ten minutes there before he left. But the next day when I went to repair my bike, because it was faulty, I was told that some people were looking for me. I said that I was not expecting anybody, but I was informed that the said people came from Warri.

“Yes, when he brought the girl I kept her because it was late, and being that they cannot go back to Bayelsa that night, I allowed the girl to sleep in my house so that in the morning she would go.

You see the girl urinated all over her clothes and I have to ensure that the clothes were washed and dried. The parents came; I never knew them and I never knew that he knew them. Immediately he saw the vehicle of the people (parents of the baby) he just ran into the bush”.

In his own account, the Camerounian admitted kidnapping the baby in connivance with the Pastor. Hear him: “Yes, I actually kidnapped the baby, the child is my madam’s daughter.

My madam has a hotel and also sells cars. I have been working there for the past five months and they paid me N8,000 per month since last year January.

This man (Pastor) used to come and visit me at the hotel. Before now he used to be a very good friend of mine and sometimes I used to visit him in his house and sometimes I used to go to his church. So when he visited me one day he told me this work I am doing as a gateman is for old people and not for young boys.

“He convinced me that the people I am working for are very rich and that since my madam has only one daughter that if we kidnap her and ask them to pay a huge amount of money, that they will pay.

He promised to give me one million naira which will make me not to suffer in my life again. I thought over it and said to myself, waoo this na big business, especially as I have never counted N50,000 or N100,000 in my life”.

The question now is: Who is telling the truth. But one fact remains: Only a heartless person would kidnap such a minor, not just a minor but the only child of the mother.

A similar incident happened in Delta State sometime ago when a native doctor, his 15-year- old daughter and four others were arrested for allegedly kidnapping two children of the Chairman of Petroleum Tanker Drivers Association in Delta State, Mr. Godstime Emaghegbe.

The anti-terrorist squad later stormed the native doctor’s shrine and recovered the sum of N5 million out of the N11 million ransom Emaghegbe claimed to have released to the kidnappers.

Though it is not clear who between the pastor and security guard is telling the truth, police insists that both of them, including several other kidnap suspects would soon be charged to court.

Rightly or wrongly, the truth will surely be unearthed either by man or the Creator of life.