By Tina Amanda
Six security personnel of a private security outfit in charge of safeguarding lives and property of Winners Chapel Church Headquarters, Kaduna Street, D-line, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, have been arrested for allegedly stealing and attempting to sell church property.
Our Correspondent gathered that the church security personnel were intercepted by men of Port Harcourt Security Watch when conveying the heavy iron rods and other church property to a place in D-Line where the items will be sold.
In an interview with our Correspondent, the Chairman of PHALGA Security Watch, Victor Ohaji, disclosed he got an intelligence call at about 1:am Sunday 27 August, 2023, that security personnel of the church were conveying iron rods and other church property to an unknown destination with a truck.
Ohaji said he and his men quickly mobilized to the scene and trailed the church security personnel to where the property was about to be sold.
According to him, the receivers of the stolen items on sighting them took to their heels, but they were able to arrest six of the church security personnel and retrieve the stolen items.
He narrated further that one Chigbo, a man in his early 30s was also arrested at about 3:am same Sunday morning while trying to vandalize a truck belonging to Rivers State Waste Management Agency (RIWAMA) parked in front of a Church at IKokwu axis of Ikwerre Road.
The RIWAMA truck driver, Chijioke Ani, who spoke to our correspondent said he had left the truck where it was parked when the diesel was finished, but on getting back he discovered the truck compacting component had been vandalized.
He revealed it was the resident of the area who alerted him of the truck being vandalized by a suspect who has been apprehended by the PHALGA Security Watch and taken to Mile One Police Division.
Our correspondent who visited the office of the vigilante operatives reports that Officers from Olu-Obasanjo Police Division came and took the six Church security personnel alongside the RIWAMA truck vandal suspect to the station.
Items recovered from the church security guards and the RIWAMA truck vandal suspects are cable wires and iron rods.
Meanwhile, the Spokesperson for the Rivers State Police Command, SP Grace Koko, has confirmed the incident. She disclosed that the five church security guards had been conniving and selling the church rods meant for church work, but were caught by a vigilante group while taking it for sale on Sunday 27 August, 2023, early morning.
SP Koko said the matter is under investigation.
