Physically-challenged pastor arrested for sickler’s death during vigil

 

A physically challenged trainee pastor, Adebayo Kehinde, 19, will have to explain the circumstances surrounding the death of a member of his church, known as Tobi.

The deceased was said to have

attended a night vigil supervised by Kehinde in a church at Iree in Osun State when he had three successive epileptic seizures and died.

Before his death, Tobi was a student of a polytechnic in the state and a sickler. CRIME DIGEST gathered that he had suffered epileptic seizures since he was born 23 years ago.

The police in Osun arrested Kehinde over the incident. His father, Mr. Samuel Kehinde, said he was away from home when he learnt of the incident. He said, “On Oct. 5, I was in Ekiti State when I received a phone call from my son in the evening. He told me that he was detained at the Iree Police Division in Osun. Naturally, I panicked and asked what offence he had committed. Adebayo told me that there was a sick man (Tobi) who had come for a vigil at the church on Friday night. He didn’t explain what the nature of the sickness was. He just went on to say that in the middle of the night during prayers, Tobi took ill.

“Adebayo told me that when he discovered that Tobi had died, he phoned the boy’s parents to inform them about his death. They had told him that they were on their way. While he waited for them, another man walked in with some policemen to arrest him. It was later he discovered that the man was Tobi’s landlord. It was the landlord who informed the police about Tobi’s death.

“I told Adebayo that I was in Ekiti and I would see him the next day. I asked him if his boss, who is also my friend, Mr. Demola Bamgboye, was aware of the situation. He said that he had spoken with Bamgboye.”

Two days after, Mr. Kehinde met his son, Adebayo, in the same church where Tolu died. There he learnt that Bamgboye had sent somebody to bail his son that Sunday evening and that the entire matter had been settled.

“Adebayo had given me the assurance that everything was over. The next day I returned to Ekiti, only to receive another phone call from Adebayo that Thursday, telling me that he had been rearrested by the police. He said more money was needed to bail him or else he would be transferred to the Osun state Police Command.

“I was confused because Adebayo had initially told me that Tolu’s parents had told the police that they were not interested in going to court over the matter to make a case because they knew Tobi was epileptic. I wasn’t really buoyant financially so I phoned Bamgboye, but he was still not back in Osun. By the time Bamgboye called me a few days later, he said that Adebayo had been taken from the Area Command at Iragbiji to the Osun Police Command. He told me that he had spent a lot of money to bail out my son and had no more money to spend.

“I quickly returned to Lagos to raise some money; I was advised to bring N40,000. Till date, I am still trying to raise that amount,” he said.

Culled - Punch

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