While child dedication was going on inside the King of Kings RCCG parish at Ketu, Lagos, some armed men muscled their way up the platform and shot dead the pastor, right there, on request.
The police have no theory yet to pursue, but they have a clue on the circumstances leading to the murder of Pastor Ibrahim Bolanale..
And CP Hakeem Odumosu has spoken.
“We will unravel the case.”
Justina Alebiou, Ibrahim’s auntie, said it was a case of assassination.
“Before they killed him, they showed him his picture to identify if he was actually the right person they came for,” she told the Telegraph after the incident, calling on Odumosu to ensure justice.
“My thinking is that my brother had business transaction with someone,”
Justina couldn’t go beyond the hunch, though she added some backstory about the murdered pastor.
According to her, Ibrahim and others were born as Muslims, before converting to Christianity. The religious trail has yet to open any investigative theory.
That could, however, counter the rumour the pastor was a repentant cultist. The police confirmed the effort the state command is making to curtail the menace around Ketu and Mile 12.
But not much is know about the murder and the victim yet–except his piety many testified of.
Justina said he was a gentleman. His wife said he was fasting that day, and was ministering to nursing mothers who brought their babies for dedication.
“I was told when the assailants wanted to drag him out of the pulpit where he was praying, he begged them to kill him there,” said Justina.
“And that was where he was eventually killed by the gunmen.”
The killers only threatened, and brutalized the church elders who intervened before the murderer shot the pastor.