Evangelical pastor beaten up by irate mob in Ibadan for stealing two mobile phones

IJARE-Ijesha self-proclaimed  evangelist Pastor Akinjide Durojaiye of  the Dominion Assembly was beaten half dead by an irate mob in Ibadan for stealing two new Tecno mobile phones in the Dugbe area of the Oyo State capital.

Pastor Durojaiye, 49, whose church is in Ijare-Ijesha in Osun State, apparently stole them from a shop within the Femi Johnson Building in Dugbe market. He apparently entered the shop, where mobile phones and accessories were being sold to preach the gospel to all the people he found there.

According to Pastor Durojaiye, he came from Ilare-Ijesa to Ibadan on an evangelisation mission, adding that the spirit directed him to the shop to preach to the attendants and others. He was said to have been apprehended by the attendants and other onlookers while trying to escape with the two phones valued at N70,000.

One of the shop attendants, who gave his name simply as Tunde, said he did not notice when the evangelist pilfered the phones, which were on display, saying he and the others were already carried away by his preaching.  After taking the phones, while being chased by the attendants and neighbours, Pastor Durojaiye was said to have hidden in a store within the complex but was located by an attendant in another shop after which he was brought out and beaten, while the phones were recovered from him.

Pastor Durojaiye, who clutched a copy of the Holy Bible to his chest, attributed the incident to the work of the devil, adding that he committed the crime because he needed to get money to treat his seven-year-old son, who is on admission in a hospital in Osun State. A father of four, he said the son, whose name he gave as Oluwadurosinmi, jumped down from a two-storey building in Ilare-Ijesa and was hospitalised because of the injuries he sustained.

In addition, Pastor Durojaiye also claimed that his wife had divorced him and left him to take care of the children alone. He was later released following the intervention of some persons in the neighbourhood who had thronged the scene of the incident.