The Cross River State Police command has paraded Pastor Hossana Okoi of Gate of Testimony Church Sierra Leon for allegedly raping a lady.
Also paraded was a 400 level student of Medicine and Surgery of the University of Calabar, Nnamdi Kingsley Ikezue, allegedly arrested with arms and army uniform.
The Command similarly paraded twenty-five other suspects arrested for various crimes in the state.
Parading the suspects, the State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Austen Agbonlahor, said Pastor Okoi had claimed that his church was located in Sierra Leone and that he was arrested after a lady reported to the police that a pastor, who was supposed to pray for her had raped her and threatened her with a gun not to report the incident.
He said the command was ready and has strategized to stamp out criminals in the state and solicit support from traditional rulers to join hands in the fight.
“We shall stop at nothing in ridding the state of criminals. I want to equivocally state that the command has assiduously strategized an onslaught on these criminals across the state and we will never renege on this no matter whose ox is gored.
Among those paraded were nine for robbery; 10, cultism; five, sundry fraud; one for possession of firearm, while N409, 500 cash was recovered as well as ammunition and cartridges.
However, Pastor Okoi told reporters during an interview that he was framed up by the lady in question. He said, “I am a Nigerian but I am the pastor of Gate of Testimony based in Sierra Leone.
“I came to Nigeria and I met the lady, who said she was going to a wedding. I did not know her from Adam, but I offered to take her there and gave her N500 to drink water.
“Later, we met at a joint and we drank and that is all that happened. I did not take her to anywhere and I don’t know why she decided to frame me up.”
But Nnamdi Ikezue owned up to being a cultist, explaining, “I am having the army uniform because, I was at the Nigerian Military School, Zaria, before I got admission into the University of Calabar to study Medicine and Surgery in 2014. I am a cultist and I still use the military uniform and my gun, which I acquired to protect myself.”
He, however, regretted that the devil was behind his ordeal, because, according to him, “At the level I am now, I am not supposed to be in cult.”
