Abdulrazaq Mungadi, Gombe

A man identified simply as Pastor Emmanuel, with Eagles Prophetic Gospel Centre in Gombe State, has been arrested for torturing a 10-year-old Daniel James.

Pastor Emmanuel, 34, of Labor quarters in Tumfure, Akko Local Government Area (LGA) of Gombe State, who was paraded by the police before newsmen alongside 15 other suspects stated that the victim had been a truant, hence he needed to punish him so that he would mend his ways.

He told our correspondent that the victim was the son of an ex-commercial sex worker who gave her life to Christ after an outreach organised by his church.

“The boy was involving in stealing; that has been his character. So, on that fateful day, I decided to punish him in a different way by using an electric pressing iron to threaten him but unfortunately, it burnt him,” Emmanuel said.

He said he asked the kid to come and live with him after the church helped the mother to get a place to live and a business to sustain herself and her elder son who is 19 years.

“They lived close to an almajiri school, so the boy always had a problem with the almajiris; that was why I took him to live with me. I made a mistake by not reporting him to the police. I always report his character to the mother before that day when I decided to punish him on my own. In the church everybody knows me to be a very disciplined man,” the pastor said

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However, the Public Relations Officer of the state police command, Obed Mary Malum, confirmed to newsmen that the suspect had confessed to having used the hot electric pressing iron to burn the boy at different parts of his body, assuring that he would soon be charged to court for prosecution.

Meanwhile, the state police command has arrested 19-year-old Mohammed Sani Ahmed, of Gabukka quarters in Gombe for the kidnapping a seven-year-old Hassan Abubakar of Kumbiya-Kumbiya quarters Gombe. It enjoined members of the public to take all necessary security measures to safeguard their children and wards both at home and in school.

According to the police, SARS operatives attached to the command arrested the suspect who had demanded N3.5 million ransoms from the father of the victim for his release.

“During interrogation, the suspect confessed to the crime and stated that he went to Kumbiya-Kumbiya quarters Gombe where he saw the victim in a mosque performing ablution and sent him to buy a sachet of pure water for him. And while on he was on his way, he followed him, and picked him on a motorcycle to his house and hid him for two days, demanding ransom.

It was gathered that when he noticed that the ransom was not forthcoming, he decided to call Aminu Babayo the uncle of the victim, claiming to have found the boy at Gabukka quarters where he was abandoned.

Police said: While jubilation was on-going, the father of the victim observed that the same mobile number used in demanding for the ransom was the same number used to call the victim’s uncle to notify him that the kidnapped child had been found.

“Hence SARS operatives were invited to arrest the suspect for questioning. During an engagement with the police, the suspect made some useful revelations.”