Metro
Redeemed Pastor Murdered in Church by ‘New Converts’
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Suspected hoodlums have attacked and killed a pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God in FESTAC Town, in the Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area of Lagos State.
Our correspondent gathered that the victim, Pastor Babatunde Dada, was killed inside the RCCG Chapel of Resurrection on 13 Road, 6th Avenue, FESTAC Town.
The killing, which happened on Thursday, December 2, was said to have been perpetrated by two new converts who came to the church for the first time a Sunday before the incident.
The two youths were said to have come out during an altar call and surrendered their lives to Jesus.
The church accommodated them on its premises after they claimed to be stranded.
They had barely spent a week in the church when they reportedly stabbed the cleric to death.
A senior pastor in the church, Akin Odejare, declined comment on the incident when contacted by PUNCH Metro.
However, the wife of the pastor, Bose, told our correspondent on the phone that she called her husband on the day of the incident and he promised to come home to rest.
She said, “My husband was killed on December 2 at the church. He was the admin/accounts officer, as well as the parish pastor. I was not with him when he was killed, but I was told that they collected money from him. I heard that those who killed him were new converts.”
A family member, who is also a security expert, Mr Abolarinwa Olatunbosun, told our correspondent on Wednesday that the pastor was killed after withdrawing money from a bank.
He said, “The pastor went to a bank to withdraw some money and went to rest on the first floor of the church. Two persons said to be new converts went to meet him upstairs, broke his head and killed him.
“The matter was reported to the police and one of the suspects, who ran to Ilorin, has been arrested.”
Olatunbosun said the killing might be for ritual purposes, adding that the assailants were suspected Internet fraudsters, aka Yahoo boys.
The expert said criminals were beginning to attack churches and pastors because they believed there was money in church.
He advised religious centres to be security conscious and put in place strategies that could stop criminals from killing, kidnapping and robbing leaders and worshippers.
A friend of the slain pastor, Fred Enemigin, who is the founder, Highflyers International, Lagos, said in a Facebook post that the pastor was stabbed multiple times.
He wrote, “Two boys had come to church last Sunday and they responded to the altar call by giving their lives to Christ. After church service, they waited to see the head pastor and told him that they were stranded without any place to stay.
“On compassionate grounds, the pastor allowed them to stay somewhere within the church premises pending when they would be resettled. Pastor Tunde Dada, who had for almost a decade been the accountant of RCCG Chapel of Resurrection Parish, was assigned to provide needed welfare for the boys until their matter would be sorted.
“On the fateful Thursday, Tunde was seated in his office and the boys targeting that they were alone on the church premises with him, entered his office and attacked him with knives and other sharp weapons. He was stabbed multiple times and places until they had him killed right there on the spot.
“Our minds are still searching for what the rift between the boys and Tunde was considering the fact that the Tunde we knew was a very gentle soul. Could they have asked for more welfare than what was approved for them and Tunde declined? What on earth would warrant this brutal killing by those who were recipients of a server of the church’s benevolence? There are many more questions that we have not found answers to.”
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Adekunle Ajisebutu, said he had yet to be briefed about the case.
The FCT Council of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has declared an indefinite strike across the Federal Capital Territory, directing workers in the public and private sectors to shut down schools, hospitals, government offices and other establishments.
The strike began on Wednesday, October 7, following the expiration of a seven-day ultimatum issued to the FCT Administration (FCTA) over the promotion of teachers.
The labour council said the FCTA failed to satisfactorily address its demands, particularly its call for the removal of the requirement for vacancies before teachers can be promoted.
The dispute centres on the FCTA’s position that teachers can only advance when vacancies are available. The NLC said the policy has contributed to years of career stagnation among teachers and is not applicable to the teaching profession.
In resolutions signed by its Chairman, Comrade Knabayi Adalo, the council argued that FCT teachers are not core civil servants or pool staff and should therefore not be subjected to a vacancy-based promotion system designed for pool officers.
It said teachers recruited by the FCT Universal Basic Education Board, UBEB, and FCT Secondary Education Board, SEB, were employed specifically to teach and should be promoted “as and when due.”
The NLC is also demanding that teachers who became eligible for promotion in 2025 be allowed to sit for their promotion examination before or alongside the 2026 candidates.
Another demand is the withdrawal of redeployment and demotion letters issued to directors who benefited from the Harmonised Retirement Age for Teachers Act, 2022.
The council is further calling for the immediate reinstatement of the dissolved management teams of FCT SEB and FCT UBEB.
The decision to commence the strike was taken at the council’s State Executive Council, SEC, meeting held on October 6, at the NLC FCT Secretariat.
At the meeting, the labour body rejected the FCTA’s response to its ultimatum, describing it as “neither clear, positive, nor genuine.”
According to the SEC, the response did not address the vacancy requirement, which it described as the “root cause of career stagnation”, and was also silent on what the council called the “illegal redeployment of directors.”
“The response of the FCTA is ambiguous and totally unacceptable,” the SEC said.
The council added that it “will no longer tolerate the continued dehumanisation of FCT teachers through obnoxious policies alien to the teaching profession.”
The 20 prospective National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members and one other abducted along the Owerri-Onitsha Road in Imo State have regained their freedom.
The victims were rescued from the Amakohia-Ubi forest in Owerri West Local Government Area of the state following a coordinated operation involving security agencies.
They have since been taken to the Department of State Services (DSS) Hospital in Owerri, where they are receiving medical attention and undergoing necessary medical checks.
The Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps Brigadier General Olakunle Oluseye Nafiu visited the DSS Clinic in Owerri, where he addressed the rescued victims.
He was in company of the Imo State Commissioner of Police, Director DSS and Brigade Commander 34 artillery Imo State.
Details of the operation, including whether any arrests were made or ransom was paid, have not yet been made public.
However, in a statement issued by the Force Public Relations Officer, Ani Iniedu, the police said, “Efforts are ongoing to apprehend those responsible for the abduction, as the Police and other security agencies sustain coordinated operations towards bringing all culpable persons to justice.”
The victims were abducted on October 1 while travelling from Ibadan, Oyo State, to NYSC orientation camps in Abia and Akwa Ibom states.
The two buses conveying the prospective corps members came under attack near Umunoha in the Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State.
Following the abduction, security agencies launched a coordinated search-and-rescue operation to locate the victims and their abductors.
The Imo State Police Command later said its operatives had located the kidnappers’ camp through drone surveillance but were unable to immediately enter the location because it was reportedly mined with improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
The police subsequently deployed additional operational assets, including bulldozers and armoured personnel carriers, as efforts intensified to reach the victims.
The development also triggered anxiety among the victims’ families after reports that the abductors were demanding ₦50 million for each victim.
Police had earlier confirmed that 10 victims were rescued following the attack, while efforts continued to locate the remaining abductees.
The latest development brings an end to the ordeal of the 20 corps members and the other abducted victim, who have now been reunited with safety and are receiving medical attention in Owerri.
The Regional Chairman of Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN), Barkin Ladi Local Government Area of Plateau State, Rev. Ezekiel Dachomo, has denied reports that he prayed for the re-election of President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima in the 2027 presidential election.
Dachomo, who is currently in Israel on what he described as his first International Christian Advocacy Tour, said his visit was aimed at drawing the attention of world leaders to the plight of Christians in Plateau.
The cleric made the clarification in a social media post on Monday night following reports that he had prayed for the success of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential ticket and expressed support for the Muslim-Muslim ticket.
Dachomo said his earlier post, in which he prayed for Nigeria, had been misconstrued as an endorsement of Tinubu and Shettima ahead of the 2027 election.
According to him, there was nowhere in the post where he prayed for the President and Vice-President to win the election.
“People are trying to frame me, saying I prayed for a Muslim-Muslim ticket. But I did not, and I will never pray for a Muslim-Muslim ticket because Nigeria belongs to both Muslims and Christians,” he said.
Dachomo said his prayers were for the well-being and success of Nigeria and its citizens, irrespective of their religious affiliations.
“I pray for both Muslims and Christians in Nigeria. I pray for Nigeria to succeed. If you truly want to come to God, come with a clean heart,” he added.
The cleric further stated, “I did not pray for President Tinubu and Vice President Shettima to win in 2027. My prayers have always been for Nigeria to succeed.”
Dachomo’s clarification came amid reactions to his ongoing advocacy tour in Israel, where he is seeking international attention to security challenges and what he described as the persecution of Christians in Plateau.
