Nine months after gunmen attacked the senior pastor and General Overseer of Omega Fire Ministries Worldwide, Apostle Johnson Suleman, along the Benin-Auchi Road in Edo State, police operatives have arrested a 32-year-old man, Yusuf Isah, who claimed to be one of the attackers.
Recall that the convoy of the cleric was in October 2022, attacked by gunmen with sophisticated firearms, leading to the death of six persons, including three police officers. Isah, a plumber from Okene, Kogi State, told newsmen that their mission was to assassinate the pastor.
The suspect confessed he joined the vicious gang in 2021 after he was freed from Olokuta Correctional Centre where he was on remand since 2019 for alleged involvement in armed robbery.He said: “ The plan of our gang on October 21, 2022, was to forcefully kidnap the Apostle and collect a huge ransom.
“We had trailed him for days and planted an informant on the Benin – Auchi express road to feed us updates on his itinerary on the day of the attack.
“I was the one who first opened fire on the convoy upon its approach but he managed to escape the attack. The attack was actually to assassinate him, although I was not part of the meeting. Ilyasu and two other people were part of that meeting.”
Parading the suspect in Abuja, the Force spokesperson, Muyiwa Adejobi, said operatives of the Intelligence Rapid Team (IRT) arrested Isah following an intensive investigation. The suspect, who lives at Agbaraoluwa Phase 2 Ijoka, Akure, Ondo State, was arrested and five Ak47 rifles, two K2 Assault rifles, 180 live ammunition and four suspected improvised explosive device (IEDs), were recovered in his apartment.
Adejobi said investigations revealed that the suspect was part of the seven-man gang responsible for the attack on the convoy of the Apostle and some of the rifles found in his possession were in fact rifles snatched from the three police officers slain during the October 21, 2022 attack. Police said efforts are ongoing to apprehend other suspects who are still at large.
