Robbers kill Christ Embassy pastor, newly married couple
...Pastor’s fiancée goes into coma, hospitalized
Mr. Chris Ipigbhe, a sub-pastor at one of the Christ Embassy’s satellite parish, Baruwa, at Ipaja area of Lagos, had just attended an evening service that fateful Wednesday , where he personally mounted the pulpit to preach.
He never had the premonition that it was going to be his last sermon, as he was later shot dead by some dare-devil robbers shortly after.
The robbers also allegedly killed no fewer than four persons, including a newly wedded couple.
Daily Sun gathered that the substantive pastor was said to be away and had asked the sub-pastor to take charge. The up-coming pastor did just that and was said to be seeing off one of the church members, an elderly woman, as it was already dark, when they ran into some armed robbers, who were operating in the same compound where the woman he was seeing off lives.
“She begged the robbers, who were holding sway at the gate, not to harm the pastor. She told them he was his son and that they were coming back from the church” our source said.
The pastor was said to have been ordered to lie face-down while the female member was asked to raise her two hands to the sky.
Unfortunately for the pastor, some of the robbers who were operating upstairs were said to have come downstairs with their loot when they saw the pastor and the woman “serving their punishment” and appeared not to be satisfied.
One of the bandits, allegedly shot the pastor ripping open his stomach and his intestines gushing out.
After shooting their victims, the robbers allegedly operated from room to room, carting away money and other valuables belonging to the residents of the two-storey building.
The rattled woman was said to have screamed for help until her co-tenants, who were also victims of the robbery incident rushed out to help her to take the pastor to a nearby hospital.
Two residents, Francis Alumhe and James Igbape narrated how the victim was referred to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), adding that he later gave up the ghost.
Alumhe, who claimed to be the deceased’s bosom friend said the pastor, visited him in his office earlier in the day, adding that they were together till 2 pm that fateful day.
The pastor’s fiancée, who was said to have travelled to Abuja, came back the same day her husband to-be was brutally killed by the robbers.
Daily Sun gathered that when she arrived at the Airport, she made several phone calls to the pastor, unknown to her that he was in a coma as result of the gunshot.
The lady, who arrived in the house to be told that the pastor was shot right in her house, as he was seeing her mother off, also became unconscious and was taken to the hospital. She was at the hospital, receiving treatment when Daily Sun visited.
Meanwhile, police operatives at Ipaja were said to be investigating the tragic incident and have vowed to fish out the bandits and to bring them to book.
The bodies of the victims were said to have been deposited in the mortuary for autopsy as investigations continue.
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