A televangelist and founder of the Solid Rock Kingdom Church, Apostle John Okoriko, has narrated his ordeal in the hands of his kidnappers. The cleric, who was kidnapped last week at the church premises in the Mkpat Enin Local Government Area of the state, regained his freedom after spending four days in detention.
While in captivity, Okoriko said two of his kidnappers knelt before him and asked him to pray for them before he regained his freedom. Before they asked for prayer, they had tortured him while demanding for a ransom of N100m.
According to Punch, the family members of the cleric were unable to raise the ransom and they pleaded that the money be reduced for them. It was later reduced to N30m.
The cleric said, “The torture was much. They did terrible things to my body to force me to bring money to them. I told them that I had not seen such money in my entire life. They told me I am ‘Adeboye’ the richest pastor close to them in Akwa Ibom State.
“Out of the five-man gang that abducted me, two of them knelt and asked me to pray for them before they released me in the evening and I prayed for those that needed my prayers.”
Okoriko will not be the first cleric to experience kidnapping. The spate of insecurity in the country has made clerics including Bishop Matthew Kukah and Bishop David Oyedepo to criticize the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government.
In one of his preaching recently, Kukah said, “The government has slid into hibernation mode. It is hard to know whether the problem is that those in power do not hear, see, feel, know, or just don’t care. Either way, from this crossroad, we must make a choice, to go forward, turn left or right, or return home. The greatest challenge now is how to begin a process of reconstructing our nation, hoping that we can hang on and survive the 2023 elections.”
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