The Ondo State Police command has arrested a self- acclaimed abductor of the one year old missing boy, Gold Kolawole at Sotitobire Praising Chapel, Akure, the Ondo State capital, on the 10th of November, 2019.
LEADERSHIP gathered that the abductor was reportedly nabbed in Port Harcourt, Rivers State by police detectives who tracked him down to Imo state before he fled to Port Harcourt where he was arrested, this week.
It was also learnt that the police swung into action, after the said abductor sent a text message to the phone of the founder of Sotitobire Praising Chapel, Prophet Alfa Babatunde , who was remained in prison custody after operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) arrested and arraigned him before a Chief Magistrate Court sitting in Akure on a three count charge over the missing boy in the church Children’s department.
Disclosing this to journalists in Akure, on Friday, counsel to Alfa Babatunde, Barrister Olusola Oke, said the arrest of Adamu (not real name) the self- acclaimed abductor of the child has thrown up hiding revelations on the allegations, claims and counter claims against his client and activities of his church and all sorts of rumours and insinuations about the missing child.
Oke said; “On December 14, 2019, Prophet Alfa Babatunde received a text message on his phone from one Adamu who claimed to have abducted Gold Kolawole from the premises of Sotitobire church for the purpose of setting the prophet up.
According to Oke, the full text read thus; ‘Attention: I am Adamu, this is to inform you that I am responsible for snatching of the 1-year old kolawole, we were sent by two men of God here in Akure and was paid some cash to set the prophet up. Call me now for more”.
He further stated that, “It was based on the above text message that detectives from the state police command tracked the phone line and traced the sender to Imo state, but he was eventually nabbed in Port Harcourt, Rivers state where he flees to.
He is currently helping the police on their investigation on the missing boy.”
“Let me also tell you this very important message; the police are closed on the perpetrators of this drastic act, and I can assure you that the outcome will shock everyone, and it will shake the whole structure of this city to it foundation. That is when we will all appreciate the good job done by the police and not the fire brigade approach of men of DSS”.
The lawyer was also worried about the manner the operatives of the DSS in the state handled the missing child case, stressing that men of the secret police are too much in haste to prosecute and nail Prophet Babatunde on the cross over the case, even when there is yet to be any evidence linking him with the unfortunate incident.
“There are many questions begging for answers by men of the DSS; one of them is why have they refused to arrest and interrogate the father of the missing boy, Mr. Kolawole, especially on how he came about the balance of sixteen million naira found in his account, and what happened to the money, thereafter? I promise you, we are going to unravel all these puzzles very soon.
“It beat my imagination that this kind of wanton killings of innocent souls, including a police sergeant on lawful duty, and setting ablaze the auditorium, several other buildings, cars and other properties belonging to Prophet Alfa Babatunde and Sotitobire Praising Centre, all because of the missing one year old boy; It’s only pointing to one fact that this is a hi-tech conspiracy against the man of God from several sources in politics, from higher temples of God, security agents and a section of the media.”
Oke however, appealed to the people of the state to keep their peace and allow the law enforcement agents to conclude their investigations on the matter, adding that the outcome will surely take many by surprise, while the innocent or otherwise of the man of God would be proven beyond reasonable doubt.
The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Femi Joseph, confirmed the development.
Joseph said the 39yr-old man, Elike Chubuzor who claimed to have the baby in his custody has been arrested.
The PPRO said, “What we have in our custody now is a self-confessed scammer and serial fraudster one Chibuzor Elike,39 years, of Etche town in Cross River, who wanted to take advantage of a bad situation to defraud the people.
“The man who said he heard about the kidnap of young Gold via the social media confessed that he actually called some people and sent some text messages where he stated that he had Kolawole Gold in his custody and will only release him after collecting 800 thousand naira .
“He also confessed that he was not sent by anyone to implicate Pastor Babatunde Alpha of Sotitobire Church as earlier stated in his numerous calls and text messages.
“Finally he said that he was just looking for a cheap way to make money as he knew nothing about the kidnap or the whereabouts of the little boy. The suspect who is now in our custody will appear in court on Monday”.
