Six private security personnel attached to a new generation church in Port Harcourt have been arrested for allegedly stealing and attempting to sell property of the religious body.
The church security personnel were intercepted by a vigilante group when they were conveying heavy iron rods and other church property to the D-Line axis of Rivers State, where the items would be sold.
Chairman of vigilante codenamed PHALGA Security Watch, Victor Ohaji, disclosed that the arrest followed an intelligence report the group received on Sunday morning.
Ohaji, stated, “Around 1 am today, My men called me that some private security men in Winners Chapel church are vandalising things inside Winners Chapel and taken the items in a truck to Railway dump to sell in collaboration with scavengers
Immediately, I and my men moved to the place. They were not there, so we went to the location of the scavengers where we saw the Winners Chapel Security men and apprehended them.
They confessed they were not alone in the business that their supervisors, their Chief Security Officer, and some federal government security operatives were involved.
“We arrested them, retrieved the stolen items, and called the Olu Obasanjo Divisional Police Officer and handed the six of them over to him for proper investigation.”
In a related incident, the vigilante boss disclosed that a middle-aged man simply identified as Chigbo, was arrested at about 3 am on Sunday, while vandalizing a truck belonging to Rivers State Waste Management Agency which was parked in front of a church at IKoku, along Ikwerre road, Port Harcourt.
Ohaji said the truck driver told home that he left the truck there when the diesel in the vehicle was exhausted at about 5am, saying when he came back the truck compacting component had been vandalized.
He said the suspect was also arrested and handed over to the police at Olu Obasanjo.
When contacted, the spokesperson of the State Police Command, Grace Iringe-Koko confirmed the incident, saying the investigation was ongoing.
She stated, “These security guards connived and have been selling the church rods which were for church work.
“But while taking it for sale, they were arrested by the vigillante and they are with us (police). We are profiling them and the investigation is ongoing”
