The police in Lagos have arrested one Pastor Tope Kolawole, 45, after he allegedly broke into churches in the Iyana Ipaja area of the state, carting away musical instruments, wall clocks, offerings, tithes and other valuables.
Police source told our correspondent that one Alausa, who allegedly bought the stolen goods from the suspect, had been at large as operatives intensified efforts to track him down.
Lagos State Police Commissioner, Fatai Owoseni, said that the pastor was arrested when he attempted to rob another church in the same Iyana Ipaja area on March 31 around 3:30am.
Police stated that he had allegedly packed the stolen items, including an amplifier, two music mixers, one keyboard, one stabiliser, two DVD players and one Samsung plasma 32- inch television, together at a spot and attempted to look for a taxi to take the items away.
A Good Samaritan was said to have alerted the police boss on noticing what the suspect was trying to do.
“The CP dispatched anti-robbery squad operatives to the scene of the distress call and the man was arrested,” said a source within SARS.
The pastor allegedly confessed that he once spent one month in Kirikiri Prison for breaking into churches.
Kolawole said, “I am an expert at stealing from churches. I steal musical instruments. I have a receiver and buyer known as Alausa. Without him, I would not have gone to churches to steal. When he heard that I had been arrested, he went into hiding. I don’t steal in the churches I worship to avoid suspicion. I had been succeeding except this one.
“I was once remanded in Kirikiri prison by Task Force from Alausa for hawking on the highway.
I am a qualified pastor, because I went to theological school and was ordained in 2008 at Ile-Ife by Christ Apostolic Church (CAC), but I worship at Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), at any of their parishes.
It is the devil that caused my frustration that made me to steal in the house of God. “My wife, Bunmi is a nurse with children.
I live in Sango and go to Lagos to operate because Ogun is good for hiding after operation.
It was what the Task Force did to me that made me to become a thief, because they made me lose everything I had got in 10 years.
“I used to gather items at about 10:30pm and by 5am, I go to a nearby road to look for taxi to take me to Oshodi.
Where the taxi driver is in doubt, I call Alausa, who claims to be the General Overseer of a particular church I once stole from. He is the one that pays the taxi driver once I deliver the goods.”
The suspect, however, claimed to have repented, saying, “I am now truly born again; if I am released, I will open a church and appoint those suspects elders of my church. We will not rob again but work for God.”
In a related development, one Adesanya Tobi, 26, on Wednesday appeared in an Ikeja Magistrates’ Court charged with breaking into a shop and stealing 44 pieces of cow skin, popularly called `kpomo’, valued at N80, 000.
Tobi, whose address was not provided, pleaded not guilty to the two-count charge of breaking and stealing preferred against him.
The prosecutor, Sgt. Eruada Victor, said that the accused committed the offences on March 25 at Ijaiye Road, Ijaiye, Lagos.
Eruada said that the accused broke into the shop of the complainant, Yusuf Iyabo, to commit the offence.
The prosecutor said Tobi was caught by the vigilance group in the area, adding that the offences contravened Sections 285 and 308 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.
