Two fake pastors with fetish items busted in Rivers

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The Rivers State Police Command has paraded two suspected fake pastors who were allegedly busted by youths in Rumunduru community in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of the state with fetish items, including caskets, monkey skulls, carved skeletons and other spiritual items inside the churches.

The suspects identified themselves as Prophet Bassey Umoren, aged 60 and the founder of the ‘God’s Deliverance Apostolic Church’ and Prophet Elijah Anietie, aged 50, founder of ‘Power House of Glory International Gospel Church’, both located along the Eneke Road, Rumunduru.

The spokesperson for the state police command, Grace Iriinge-Koko, while parading the suspects and the recovered items before newsmen at the Headquarters of the State Police Headquarters, Moscow Road in Port Harcourt on Thursday said operatives of the ‘Operation Sting’ responded to a distress call, apprehended the suspects and recovered the said items.

Iringe-Koko stated, “This is a case that has been circulating in the social media about a fake pastor who was reported by youths of Rumunduru in Origwe in Obio’/Akpor LGA led by the community youth leader, Henry Worlu, on January 20, 2025, at about 9 am.

“They (the youths) brought the pastors, Umoren Bassey and Elijah Anietie, both from Akwa Ibom State. The suspects were handed over to the police for discreet investigation.”

She further said, from preliminary investigation, the items found in the church compounds, were one live cartridge (weapon), two wooden coffins (caskets), wooden pots, fake naval passports, a National Identification number slip, a horn, thousands of people’s pictures and passports.

“Also, we found a naval Barrett, bottles containing some liquid, pairs of children’s shoes, calabash, coconut, different sizes of bibles, a police lanyard and monkey skull, moulded candle stand, and different crosses,” the state police image maker said.

Iringe-Koko, a Superintendent of Police, said contrary to pictures and reports in social media, no live python or human skull was recovered from the church compounds.

While noting that the matter is still under investigation, she said the police would furnish the media with any further outcomes subsequently.

Meanwhile, answering questions from newsmen, one of the suspects, Bassey, denied indulging in fetish activities, describing himself as a ‘spiritual man’.

Bassey, who accepted keeping recovered items, said he used them for deliverance purposes and alleged that some people in the community set him up over a land dispute.

According to him, “It’s (the items) for prayer and deliverance in case of any spiritual work the way God directed you to save the life of people or deliver people.

“You can even use pawpaw, water, and olive oil. It is the way God directed you that you will solve people’s problems that they bring to you.”

On how his church was raided, he said, “I have lived there (the community) for years. We have a land case and a judgement was given. We bought the land and they want me to leave.

“The time they asked me to quit that place if I accepted the judgement. But the judgement was not even near, it’s just three weeks now, while the court talked about 50 days ahead.

“So, they (community youths) used this to set me up. They planted some of the materials. I have been healing people and helping the community. This is a place I have lived for more than 16 years. One of the pictures they posted on the internet is my son, another is a member of my church and they are all alive.”

The embattled pastor continued, “They just used this to set me up, break the church and push me out and asked me to confess. Confess what? Let me tell you about many of them in the community and native doctors.

“I use the small casket or miracle life oil to pray for mad people. The mad person must be calm within three months. I use it to help the community people.”

On his part, Prophet Anietie, who claimed to be a senior official of Maritime Rescue and Coastal Security, also denied the allegation, saying he was in his kinsman’s (Bassey) church having a meeting with him when some villagers swooped on him.

He added, “We went to my church and they started beating me and asked what I was using the passports for.

On the items found in his church, he said, “When they came, they saw a small casket, a native pot which I used to cook medicine to drink because I went for operation and the thing started swelling and I was asked to use it to cook and drink. The casket is used for deliverance.”

Meanwhile, the Rumunduru youth president, Worlu, in a chat with newsmen insisted that the pastors were fake and indulging in fetish activities including sacrifices at odd hours.

Worlu said, “That midnight of 20th January, I was called by the vigilante commander that they saw a man they know very well as a pastor doing sacrifice.

“So, they traced him down to his house. So, I said in the morning, we would get to him and find out what he was doing at the centre of the road. We asked him, he denied that he wasn’t doing anything fetish.

“We met him with his second (Elijah), he said he just came to visit his friend. We asked to see his church compound, but he refused. The youths were there peacefully, but he refused and even tried to make trouble until they opened one of his chambers and found all manner of fetish things, a very big shrine.

“Right in his altar, they saw something like a dull buried in the altar and they dug it out. They saw people’s pictures, some of the people’s eyes in the pictures were pierced and the legs were broken. We also saw a small locally made ammunition and carved images tied with red clothes.

“We saw some of these items in his compound and the other prophet’s church compound. We asked what he was doing with those items, and he was dumbfounded. We have video evidence. To ensure nobody touched or beat him, immediately, we called the police and he was apprehended.”

On the allegation of gang up over land, the youth president said he was not aware of any land dispute.

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