Some suspected burglars have raided four churches in Onikolobo, the Abeokuta South Local Government Area and Abule-Ojere in the Obafemi-Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State.
It was learnt on Sunday that the suspected burglars broke into the churches in the early hours of Thursday and stole items such as amplifiers, microphones, laptops, keyboards and channel mixers among others.
The affected churches, which are located close to one another are the Glory Place Christian Centre, Onikolobo, The Redeemed Evangelical Mission, Onikolobo both in Abeokuta South and Kingsworld International Church and Solution Embassy in Obafemi-Owode LG.
When our correspondent visited some of the churches, it was observed that the burglars gained entrance through the windows by pulling off the burglar-proof.
The Lead Pastor of Glory Place Christian Centre, Kunle Soyoye, said that he received the information around 2am on Thursday from an unknown caller who contacted him and his wife through the phone number on the church banner.
He said, “I was asleep when a call came in around 2am but I did not take the call because it was an odd hour and I did not even know the caller. The person called like two more times and when I did not pick up, the person called my wife who came to tell me that someone wanted to speak with me.
“I picked up the call and the person said he got our contact through the church’s banner and that our church has been raided. I went to the church and realised that they had stolen keyboards, laptop and other musical instruments.”
Soyoye said that he got to know that other churches were affected when he went to Adigbe Police Station to report the incident and he met representatives of the other churches who came to report similar incidents.
“After getting to the church, I called Adigbe police station, they came and inspected everything and I was asked to follow them to make a formal report. On our way to the police station, I met a brother from Kingsworld who also came to report a similar issue. It was not quite long, another person from TREM also came to report the same issue. That was how we got to know that the burglars raided four churches.
“When we got to Kingsworld to see what happened, what was stolen was even more than what they stole in my church,” he added.
A member of TREM who did not want his name in print said it was surprising that despite the presence of security guards in the area, the burglars were able to carry out the raid without being caught.
“When I heard of the incident, it was surprising to me that they (the burglars) operate without being caught despite that there are watchmen in the area,” he said.
When contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Omolola Odutola, confirmed the incident.
She noted that some of the items had been recovered from where the suspects kept them in the bush, adding that investigation was ongoing to arrest the perpetrators.
“Yes, it happened. The Divisional Police Officer, Adigbe, received the complaint and they have made a huge success in recovering some of the stolen items where the thieves hid them in a bush and they have been released on bond to Kingsword Church.
“Meanwhile, efforts are still ongoing by intelligence gathering to arrest the perpetrators of the sacrilege,” she said.
