There are indications that Pastor Kingsley Anosike of Light Intercessors church branch located at Chimezie street, Ebelu axis of Oyigbo Local Government Area of Rivers State who was kidnapped alongside three other Ministers attached to a guest Bishop regained freedom on Wednesday,August 7th,2024.
A member of the church who pleaded anonymity because of sensitivity of the matter told our reporter that the victims were released on Wednesday evening by their abductors.
Our source was however,silent on whether the church paid ransom or not before the victims regained freedom.
We had earlier gathered that gunmen dressed in military camouflage suspected to be herders at about 3 am last week Friday, 2nd August,2024 invaded Light Intercessors church branch at Oyigbo during a midnight programme and shot sporadically for at least 20 minutes uninterrupted.
The gunmen were said to have targeted Bishop Blessed Moses Uzodinma, the presiding Pastor of Endtime Fire Intercessory Ministries who was the guest Minister in the church.
The source disclosed that the gunmen shot directly at Bishop Uzodinma who was preaching at the church altar as at the time of their arrival but the Bishop was unhurt and ‘vanished’ to the astonishment of the gunmen.
Angry with the development,the gunmen kidnapped the host Pastor, Kingsley Anosike of Light Intercessors church branch and three Ministers in the entourage of Bishop Uzodinma who was their main target.
We further learnt that, one of the church worker of Endtime Fire Intercessory Ministries who was caught by bullet on his leg was rushed to the hospital after the arrival of the Police .
The source also revealed that the suspected herders established contact with the church hours after whisking the Pastor and three ministers away,demanding 100 million naira ransom.
We reliably gathered that as at Monday evening,5th August 2024,the gunmen reduced the ransom to 20 million naira.
It is not clear if ransom was paid or not before the clergy men were released by their abductors.
The spokesperson for the Rivers State Police Command,SP Grace Iringe Koko was yet to respond to enquiry on the incident by our reporter as at time of filing the report.