The Ogun State owned security outfit, the So-Safe Corps, on Monday acknowledged that its men killed Pastor Adeniyi Adisa in error during operation, when they engaged in shoot out with some kidnappers on July 1st at Abule Ori community, Obafemi-Owode Local Government Area of the State.
The Commander of So-Safe, Soji Ganzallo, who disclosed this at a press conference in Abeokuta, apologized to the family of late Pastor Adeniyi Adisa, described the situation as unfortunate.
Ganzallo said “it will be recalled that on July 1st, our officers, while responding to distress call at Abule-Ori community in Obafemi Owode Local Government Area of the state moved in and were able to rescue seven church members earlier kidnapped in a church. That same night, the Corps decided to trail the kidnappers and it was during the operation when the officers engaged in a shoot-out with the kidnappers that the unintended happened.
“It was really an unfortunate situation, a very sad one that none of us is happy about. After this incident, So Safe issued a release to members of the public that seven kidnapped church members were rescued while one of the kidnappers was gunned down with others escaping with bullet wounds.
“We however later got to know in the cause of our investigation that the suspect killed was not a kidnapper but Pastor Saheeb Adeniyi Adisa of Oke Oluokun, Ibadan, Oyo State who had earlier been kidnapped by the kidnappers and probably brought along to be freed after collecting the ransom before going for their next operation but may be the there was a delay somehow leading to this incident.
“The Ogun State Police Command has investigated this case and it has been discovered that Pastor Saheeb Adeniyi Adisa was a kidnapped victim too and he was never a kidnapper. This retraction is to set the record straight and assuage the feelings of the family that their son, Pastor Saheeb Adeniyi Adisa was never a kidnapper”.
“The police is also preparing a report on this sad incident that will be given to the family, we have discussed all of this and we just want the family to heart on this unintended incident. We all know how it feels to lose a loved one especially in this kind of situation. We hereby commiserate with the family on this loss and we pray that the soul of the departed rest in peace”
Ganzallo also said that the So-Safe Corps is working closely with the Commissioner of Police, Alamutu Abiodun to give some compensation to support the children of the deceased within the first week of November.
Speaking on behalf of the family during the press briefing, head of the family, Chief Muiz Adegboyega Akande, Otun Parakoyi of Ibadan land said the family is quite happy with the amicable resolution of the sad incident.
Chief Akande said “It’s a painful loss but what can we do, as a reasonable family we have found out that it was operational error. It was not intended. We have had engagement with the police and officers of the So Safe Corps culminating into today’s press briefing.
‘Police officers shot at me’, Fubara alleges assassination attempt
“I am glad my brother’s name had been cleared of being a kidnapper and for the compensation for the children, I know the officers are men of integrity and they will certainly do as promised”.
Pastor Saheeb Adeniyi Adisa of Latter Rain Revival Christian Church, Olaogun, Ibadan, Oyo State was the General Manager of VGC Water, Lekki, Lagos until he was kidnapped on June 24 while returning from a visit to a friend in Yotomi area, Owode Egba in Obafemi-Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State.
It was learnt that due to the delay in the ransom payment after the Chartered Accountant was kidnapped, his abductors took him to a bush close to a church they were going to attack.
His abductors were said to have abandoned him and went to attack the church, where they killed the pastor during a night vigil before policemen and the state’s So-Safe Corps called upon by church members arrived at the scene.
Pastor Adisa was however said to have been killed when the security officers engaged the kidnappers in a shoot out thinking that he was one of the kidnappers.
The So Safe Corps in a release after the incident had labeled the deceased as one of the kidnappers gunned down during the rescue operations.
But a brother to the late Pastor, Musiliu Adisa, said that his brother was not a kidnapper but a kidnapped victim and that the family was about paying his ransom when the sad incident happened.
He said “the kidnappers had agreed to collect ransom at the Abule Ori bush on Friday night, the very day the his brother was killed but the lady who took the money to the place around 9 pm had to returned with the money because there was no commercial motorcycle to transport her into the bush.
