Assailants storm RCCG Lagos, murder pastor on pulpit

Story from Kenneth AFOR, Lagos

Church members, family and friends are still in shock after the murder of late Bolanle Ibrahim, an assistant pastor with the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), King of King Parish who was recently sent to the world beyond by unknown gunmen during church service at the Mile 12 area of Lagos State.

Late Ibrahim was inside the church praying for mothers and their children during child dedication, when the suspected assailants stormed the church.

It was gathered that the gunmen tried to drag Ibrahim out but another senior pastor in the church approached them and demanded what they wanted from him.

The New Telegraph quoting the deceased’s aunt, Mrs Justina Alebiosu, who narrated how the incident happened, said that when the senior pastor was asking the assailants who they were, they hit him with the butt of their gun in his mouth.

Alebiosu said what happened to her brother was a clear case of hired assassination, “even before they killed him, they showed him his picture to identify if he was actually the right person they came for.”

She said: “His death was an unfortunate one, we have lost a gentleman. It is true we were born as Muslims but we converted to Christianity. My thinking is that my brother had a business transaction with someone.

“I was told when the assailants wanted to drag him out of the pulpit where he was praying for women who brought their children for dedication, he begged them to kill him there and that was where he was eventually killed by the gunmen.”

She added that, “the assailants also threatened to shoot any of the members of the church who dare come close to them.

“We still have an aged mother, and his wife just gave birth, his children are still young. I am appealing to the state Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu to release his remains for us to bury, presently we are all down morally, because of his sudden death.”

The distressed wife of the deceased, Mrs Kudirat Ibrahim, said her husband was killed while fasting. She said for the period they courted, she never suspected her husband to be a cultist, wondering where people heard that he was a cult member, “what they are saying about him are blatant lies, my late husband was a man of God and he served him to his death.

“I wasn’t at home on the fateful day of the incident, I went to take care of my sick mother at the hospital, I had no premonition about his death; after the deed was done, nobody called to inform me.

“I never knew my husband had been killed, I was still busy calling him to bring something for me from home, not knowing that he had already been killed. Whenever I called him, the person who picked his call kept telling me my husband is preaching. It was later around 7 pm that my elder brother came to break the news to me about the gruesome murder of my beloved husband.”

The deceased’s aged mother, Mrs Agnes Ogunowo said the gunmen have taken her son and her friend from her. Ogunowo said they bid each other bye when they were going to church on the fateful Sunday.

“I am a member of Catholic but he attended Redeemed Christian Church of God and he was the Assistant Pastor of the church. I still don’t understand why they killed my son. He was an easy-going person.

“My son has a new baby who we are yet to take to the church for dedication, now my son is no more. I want to appeal to the police to get involved in my son’s death, arrest and prosecute those who killed him. I want God to expose those behind it, I cannot bear his death.”