by Akintomiwa Agbaje

Officials of the Department of State Services (DSS) arrested a pastor who claimed to have been reportedly kidnapped along with his six children in Lokoja, Kogi State.

The arrest was made over the alleged printing and circulation of fake currency.

The service said the arrest of a syndicate, including the pastor, was made yesterday.

Acccording to a Vanguard report:

The Director of DSS, Mr Mike Fubara, said this when he presented the suspects to newsmen, adding that the syndicate included 15 others, including the pastor’s six children.

He named the pastor as Godson Akubuiro, the General Overseer of The Mountain of Breakthrough Deliverance Ministry, Lagos.

Fubara said DSS in its effort to trace the source of the “worrisome fake naira currency in circulation in the state undertook a covert operation to uncover those behind the act.

‘’This operation took the service close to four months before a breakthrough resulting in the arrest of the 16-man syndicate led by Reverend Godson O. Akubuiro,’, the director said.

He said the operation took security agents to The Breakthrough Church, also known as Land of Solution, located at Plot 7, Koya Estate, Igbo Olomu, Agric, Ikorodu, Lagos.

He said the suspects were being investigated preparatory to their prosecution.

Items recovered

The director said items recovered from the suspects include equipment and materials used in printing fake currencies.

Other items recovered were a large quantity of printed fake notes, cut to size blank currency notes and N1.3 million fake naira notes.

Fubara urged the public to be wary of the fake naira notes in circulation and report suspects to the service.

I used the money to support the less privileged — Pastor

Akubuiro, however, told newsmen that he was not using the money for himself but in supporting the less privileged and the needy in his congregation.

He, however, pleaded for leniency, saying men of God were often tempted like King David in the Bible, who as a man after God’s heart but fell many times and was still pardoned by God.

Pastor Godson Akubuiro and six of his children were reportedly kidnapped on Friday from their Adeosun Street residence, Koya Estate, Igbo Olomu, Ikorodu, and Lagos State.