Founder of Word Assembly Ministries (WAM), Ilorin, Rev Isaac Omolehin, has raised the alarm over a threat by bandits to attack his church camp at Idofian village in Ifelodun Local Government Area of Kwara State.
In a statement made available to journalists on Saturday by his spokesperson, Grace Edema, the pastor said the threat forced him and his family to go into hiding for safety.
According to him, the police arrived at the camp at midnight between May 30 and 31 and ordered an immediate evacuation following a threat of a bandit attack.
The cleric, known for his criticism of denominational divisions in the Nigerian Church, lamented that the threat forced him, his family and more than 100 residents of the facility to flee the camp.
He noted that the camp had remained deserted since the evacuation, rendering the residents homeless.
Omolehin said: “The police came to my camp in the middle of the night and asked everybody to run because kidnappers were coming to attack me. The whole camp was deserted, and it has remained deserted.
“They came, the bandits, but they didn’t meet anybody.
“I have a house I can’t enter. I have a car I can’t ride. I have to hide myself from the public. If I sleep here today, I’ll sleep somewhere else tomorrow. I’m homeless with my wife and children.
“Bandits chased us out of that place. The school cannot open, the hospital is not functioning, and the patients and nurses all ran for their lives,”
“We wrote to the police because they were the ones who asked us to leave. We asked if it was safe for us to return because schools had resumed and we have over a hundred children that need to go to school. There has been no response.
“Three days after the attack on my camp here in Kwara, my village in Kogi State was also attacked, and my people were killed. When they missed me here in Kwara, they went to my village and attacked my people.
“The kidnappers did not destroy our buildings; the structures in the camp are still intact. However, a few days after we evacuated, thieves began breaking into the camp and carting away our belongings.
“Those were different criminals. The kidnappers did not come to steal refrigerators, fans or mattresses. They came for human beings. The people who looted our property are not the same as the kidnappers.
“The attacks are still going on, but they don’t affect me. Jesus already told us that our preaching may be resisted.
“I want to appeal to the government to improve security so that I can return to the camp with my family and all the people I look after. Some of the children in the orphanage were brought to us by the government. Even if they say they don’t care about the rest of us, what about the children they entrusted to us?”
(Photo: Facebook)