Speaking to SaharaReporters, a top official of the DSS said the five #BuhariMustGo campaigners were still being detained because of two stories written by the newspaper against the cleric and his father-in-law.
The Senior Pastor of Dunamis International Gospel Centre, Dr Paul Enenche, has asked the Department of State Services (DSS) not to release the five #BuhariMustGo protesters arrested on the church premises until SaharaReporters delete two stories against him and his father-in-law, Professor John Ibu, a source has said.
The youths wearing #BuhariMustGo branded shirts were arrested on Sunday, July 4, 2021.
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The church security team was said to have arrested the activists and handed them over to the DSS, Nigeria's secret police.
Speaking to SaharaReporters, a top official of the DSS said the five #BuhariMustGo campaigners were still being detained because of two stories written by the newspaper against the cleric and his father-in-law.
He said, “Don’t be deceived, Dr. Enenche is actually lying about working to get them released. Backstage, he (Enenche) doesn’t want them released except SaharaReporters deletes the story written against his father in-law and another one written against the church last year, I think it was a story about a former pastor of the church accusing Eneche of sending him to prison on trumped-up charges.
“He told us it was Omoyele Sowore that sent the boys to his church and he (Sowore) should be punished by the prolonged detention of the guys.”
SaharaReporters on June 27, 2020 published that one Pastor Abraham Daniel, a former member of Dunamis International Gospel Centre revealed how Eneche falsely accused him and had him imprisoned on trumped-up charges.
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Daniel claimed Eneche and other pastors were angry at him for leaving the church while also claiming that he (Daniel) publicly criticised the cleric in his Facebook posts that revealed the activities of the church.
He added that while he was in prison, he lost his business and his wife also left with their five children after being influenced by the church.
He said, "I was ordained as a pastor in 2010. In 2014, I was posted to New Karu as the residence pastor. While I was there, we started a school. I wanted a school that would be almost free for church members but an instruction came from the headquarters that I should not run the school freely, so I had to stop the whole plan.
"I wrote on my Facebook post telling churches in Nigeria to encourage members' development and also help members. I also wrote that Christians now celebrate pastors instead of focusing on Jesus and the teachings of the Bible.
"I later lost interest in the church, wrote a letter of resignation, it was accepted and I left. The pastor (Eneche) called me and was insulting me because I left the church. He sent his pastors to start calling my wife to pester me to return to the church.
"This put my family in disarray as my wife pestered me until I closed the ministry and ensured I returned to Dunamis Church. I left again, then suddenly things went rogue. A number called me that he needed my Uber service and we met unknowingly to me that they were police.
"They took me to Karu Police Station, saying that they arrested me because of what I wrote against Pastor Eneche."
He added that he was moved to another police station in Abuja and the church insisted that he must be taken to court.
He was eventually charged to court and remanded in prison pending his bail application.
Daniel also said the church made false allegations while testifying in court, which made the judge send him to prison before he was granted another bail.
The newspaper in 2021 also reported how the Chairman of Benue State University Teaching Hospital and the father of Enenche's wife, Becky, Professor John Ibu, was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for alleged N24.6 million fraud.
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Checks by SaharaReporters revealed that Becky was formerly known as Rebecca Inyangbe Ibu before marriage.
On June 28, the EFCC announced that its Makurdi Zonal Office arraigned her father alongside one Chief Abukenchi Suleiman and his company, ADB Motors Venters Nigeria Limited before Justice Abdu Dogo of the Federal High Court sitting in Makurdi, Benue State.
They were arraigned on charges of conspiracy and obtaining N24, 650,000 (Twenty-Four Million, Six Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira only) by false pretences.
The EFCC alleged that the duo obtained the said sum from the Benue State University Teaching Hospital under the guise of purchasing a Toyota Landcruiser Prado 2018 Model which was never bought.
The anti-corruption agency noted that the offence is contrary to Section 8(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under section 1(3) of the same Act.
Count one of the charge reads: “That you, Professor John Ibu, being the Board Chairman, Benue State University Teaching Hospital, you Chief Abukenchi Suleiman, being the Managing Director ADB Motors Ventures Nigeria Ltd and you, ADB Motors Ventures Nigeria Ltd sometime in July 2019 within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with intent to defraud conspired amongst yourselves and obtained the sum of N24,650,000 (Twenty Four Million Six Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira only) from the Benue State University Teaching Hospital Board for the purchase of a Toyota Landcruiser Prado 2018 Model under false pretences that you have the capacity to supply which pretence you knew was false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 8(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under section 1(3) of the same Act."
Count two reads: "That you, Professor John Ibu, being the Board Chairman, Benue State University Teaching Hospital sometime in July 2019 within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did use your position to confer an unfair advantage to yourself by collecting a bribe, to the tune of N10, 900,000 (Ten Million Nine Hundred Thousand Naira only), from one Chief Abukenchi Suleiman of ADB Motors Ventures Nig. Ltd, on behalf of Atirogo & Sons Enterprises, paid into Access Bank account Number 0049185884, a company you're the Managing Director and thereby committed an offence, contrary to Section 19 of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act 2000 and punishable under the same Act.”
However, the defendants pleaded “not guilty" to the charges preferred against them.