But for the intervention of the police, a popular Pentecostal cleric and his wife would have been kidnapped at Isheri Osun area of Lagos yesterday.


The Guardian learnt that gunmen in the early hours of Tuesday intercepted the bishop’s convoy and attempted to drag him off his vehicle.


They shot sporadically around 4:30a.m. before getting to the vehicle conveying the cleric and his wife.
Two of the gunmen were said to have come out from their operational Honda Salon car, opened his car door and started dragging him and his wife away.


However, policemen attached to the bishop were said to have engaged the criminals in a gun duel, which lasted several minutes.
As the fight lasted, the policemen called for reinforcement from Isheri Division, a development that forced the gunmen to flee into a nearby swamp, abandoning their operational vehicle.
Police Commissioner, Fatai Owoseni, confirmed the incident, adding that the victims were unhurt, while the gunmen fled with bullet injuries.


“What would have been a case of kidnapping/armed robbery was foiled as the bishop and his wife were rescued. We have since carried out raid on the area,” he said.


Owoseni also disclosed that the police on Monday recovered the body of a notorious kidnapper, Timi, alias Big Fish at Ishawo in Ikorodu.


The police boss stated that the deceased was killed by members of the Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) during an armed robbery operation.
He said: “We got a distress call that a group of armed robbers were operating at the area and we sent some policemen to the area.

When our men got there, they discovered that the local vigilance group there rose to the challenge and faced the hoodlums squarely.
“We found the body of the kingpin of the hoodlum. It was the killing of Timi Bigfish that made people say kidnappers have returned to Ishawo.”


The police boss, who paraded 24 suspected hoodlums, said the command also arrested 10 teenagers between the ages of 12 and 16 for school gangsterism. The students were arrested with cutlasses, axes and other dangerous weapons.
“We want to appeal to parents and school authorities to monitor their children to avoid raising criminals as students”.

Thank God for this family.

The spate of abductions ithese days is on the increase. An acquitance of mine was kidnapped last week at Bwari on his way to Abuja. They let him and his business associate go after collecting a looot of money.

Thank God