Pastor Stabbed To Death Inside Church By Two Teenagers Seeking Shelter

Two Nigerian teenagers who were arrested for murdering a pastor have now revealed graphic details of the horrifying crime, authorities said.

Pastor Babatunde Dada of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) on 6th Avenue, Festac Town, was stabbed to death in the premises of the church on Dec. 2.

Police said the two teen boys, Farouk Mohammed, 15, and Jamiu Kasali,17, entered the church under the pretext of seeking shelter.

"Two boys had come to church last Sunday and they responded to the altar call by giving their lives to Christ. After church service, they waited to see the head pastor and told him that they were stranded without any place to stay," Fred Enemigin, founder of Highflyers International, Lagos, and a friend of the slain pastor, wrote on Facebook.

"On compassionate grounds, the pastor allowed them to stay somewhere within the church premises pending when they would be resettled."

"Pastor Tunde Dada, who had for almost a decade been the accountant of RCCG Chapel of Resurrection Parish, was assigned to provide needed welfare for the boys until their matter would be sorted."

"On the fateful Thursday, Tunde was seated in his office and the boys targeting that they were alone on the church premises with him, entered his office and attacked him with knives and other sharp weapons. He was stabbed multiple times and places until they had him killed right there on the spot," he wrote.

The teen suspects, who fled the scene after the crime, were tracked down and arrested by the police.

Confirming the arrest on new year's eve, Lagos Commissioner of Police, AIG Hakeem Odumosu, disclosed that Mohammed was apprehended in Ilorin, Kwara State, while Kasali was tracked down to Festac Town, Lagos.

Parading the teenagers before journalists, the Commissioner said the suspects who introduced themselves to Pastor Dada as musicians stabbed him to death to steal his bag full of cash.

"The suspects, after committing the murderous act, absconded to unknown places. However, following intensive and discreet investigation, the two culprits were arrested in their hideouts. The suspects during interrogation confessed to having killed the victim with a bottle and a stick. The exhibits used in perpetuating the dastardly act were recovered," the officer said.

In an interview published by Vanguard, Kasali, said, "On the day we struck, the Pastor came to Church in the morning, gave us money for food and left. Later, he came in with a bag containing money."

"Few hours before then, Farouk got a telephone call from his mother, urging him to come home quickly that she was sick. We were contemplating on how he would get money to take his mother to the hospital when the Pastor walked in with the bag containing money."

"We followed him upstairs, hit him with a plank, before stabbing him with a broken bottle in the neck. He fell down. We grabbed the bag and left the house."

Mohammed said he had lied to his parents that he was visiting Lagos for performing a music show.

"I lied to my mother that I would get at least, N200,000 from the show. We are upcoming musicians. We have been in the industry for three years. When things were not going on as planned, we decided to do something else, in order to invest in our music industry. My stage name is Zealight while Kasali’s J Fresh," he said.

"Our mission in Lagos was to look for where to perform. But that plan changed immediately when we saw Pastor with the bag containing money," he added.

Abolarinwa Olatunbosun, a family member of the deceased pastor, also said Dada was killed after withdrawing money from a bank.

"The pastor went to a bank to withdraw some money and went to rest on the first floor of the church. Two persons said to be new converts went to meet him upstairs, broke his head, and killed him."

Officer Odumosu said the weapons used to commit the crime have been recovered, adding that both suspects would be charged to court.