Pastor Arrested Over Man’s Death

The police in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, are trying to unravel the circumstances which led to the death of a young man, Kingsley Sampson, whose corpse was exhumed in the premises of Church of Christ, 170 Ikot Ekepene  Road, Ikot Udoro Oku, Uyo, by his family, which led to the arrest of the pastor and others.

According to reports, Kingsley was among the group of young men employed by the Church of Christ on the 21 September 2009, as causal labourers to evacuate debris on the project site for the laying of the foundation for a new block the church is building, but that at the close of work, his bicycle and clothes were left behind in the church premises, while he was missing.

His mother later approached the church to report that Kingsley was yet to return home, and the preacher, Effiong Bassey Oku, thereafter contacted one of the two brothers handling the project and on checking the record, Kingsley’s name was allegedly not found on the list of workers.

The woman was asked to report to the police and after investigation, it was discovered that the body of Kingsley was buried somewhere on the foundation lines. The police subsequently exhumed the body on 28 September 2009.

This led to the arrest of the church Minister, Effiong Bassey Oku, the site supervisor, the security men and many other church members.

An Elder of the church and one time chairman of Uyo Local Government Council, Obong Okon Mkpong, said: “when the parents came, they gave us a photograph of the boy and since his name was not on the list of the labourers engaged for work that day, the possibility of the young man being one of those who worked on the site was doubted, so, the woman was asked to report the case to the police.

“When it was later discovered that some of the labourers engaged on the evacuation had engaged the services of other people, we did not know if one of those engaged by the labourers was the missing Kingsley, more so, as his bicycle and clothes were reportedly found in the church premises.

“The incident has whipped up a lot of sentiments and the church is being accused of ritual killing and use of human parts to erect her building foundation, which the church did not do.”

He said there was no report of any conflict in the building site and was therefore at a loss as to how the corpse got there, and that it is hard to imagine how and why the tragedy happened. He said they do not know if there’s a link with the land case which the church won after 22 years of litigation in 2007.

The PPRO,  Akwa Ibom Police Command said the Assistant Commissioner of Police in-charge of Criminal Investigation Department at the State Headquarters, Ikot Akpanabia, Mr. Undie Adie, has visited the scene of the incident and is working on the case.

Meanwhile, Civil Liberties Organisation, has assured the family of the late Kingsley Sampson Effiong that it will stop at nothing in ensuring that Justice was done.