Yusuf Isah, a suspect arrested over the deadly attack on the convoy of a Nigerian cleric and founder of Omega Fire Ministry, Edo State, Apostle Johnson Suleman, has said that he was not aware of the identity of the sponsor of the attack.
The cleric was attacked in October 2022 in Edo State, during which a number of policemen who were his escorts were killed.
Isah, a 32-year-old plumber from Okene in Kogi State, was paraded by the Force spokesperson, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, in Abuja last week.
In a recorded interview on Twitter, Isah said his eight-member gang collected N50million for the hit job of the Nigerian pastor.
“It is not easy for the Police Force to track us. We don’t make calls, the phone I am using I’ve never used it to call anybody. We specialised in using the Telegram platform to communicate with ourselves.
“Telegram uses username, not number, unlike WhatsApp. Even the line we are using to buy data, it is not a registered line. We did not register any line by ourselves, and we did not open any account with our own identity.
“I can only say that only God wanted to track me down because of the calibre of people we have assaulted. We wanted to kill him. Somebody planned it, but I don’t know the person. It was Labista and Eliazu. Labista is on the run, but Eliazu is dead,” he said when asked about their intention for the attack.
Isah declined knowledge of who sponsored the attack but said his gang members told him they got N50 million to kill the cleric.
“I just wish I could see him (the cleric) one on one to beg for forgiveness. I’m really sorry,” he said. “We lost two of our leaders. After Eliazu, the next leader, Ejima, also died. I am the next leader after Ejima. Now I have been arrested.”
SaharaReporters on Saturday reported how Suleman lashed out at the Nigerian police, saying the operatives were unwilling to go after the suspects who attacked his family until he mobilised the officers.
Apostle Suleman had said this while addressing the congregation of his church on the matter.
He said he worked with at least three different police units to achieve results, adding that Yusuf Isah, paraded by police on Thursday, was arrested two months ago.
Suleman said, “October there was an attempt, you all saw the attempt, and when the attempt came I told myself I wasn’t going to rest till we get them arrested. I started with a group of officers, they were not fast so I moved to the next group, they were not fast, and I moved to another set, you see now, police are taking the credit for something that someone mobilised them to do.”
“If I wasn’t serious, they won’t get those guys, they can take the credit, it is fine but I said I was going to pursue them and find them, they were deadly guys. They don’t use phone calls; they use telegram, so to track them was a little bit difficult. The guy you saw in the video is a sniper. They caught him in Akure. You will be shocked that we caught him two months ago, you are just hearing it now. We were using him to get all the information we needed to get,” Apostle Suleman stated.
According to the priest, the group who attacked him was also involved in kidnapping.
He continued: “There was a man in this town called Baba Petrol, those are the group that kidnapped him.”
Apostle Suleman alleged that they “were the group that attacked the mother of the Kogi State governor as well.”
He noted that “Six of them are from Kogi State, one is a Fulani. That is not my interest, my interest is who sent you?”
Apostle Suleman said he was pained because some persons on social media accused him of using those who died during the attack for rituals.
“Some said I arranged it with my children inside. They spent N4 million to do charm before they attacked me. He (the suspect) said a lot but I don’t know why they were squeezing the video. It’s ok. All I want is justice. For five years people come for me, I kept quiet. But this time, you come for me, I will pursue you. I have told our team, everybody that has come out to accuse me, open a case on them, all of them. From 2017 till now, we are going to two courts, one is the court of man, the other is the court of God.”