LAGOS JULY 21ST (URHOBOTODAY)-The Delta State Police Command on Thursday arraigned two suspects for false information where they had claimed that a bishop of a new generation church in Warri was sponsoring fleeing members of the Niger Delta Avengers.
PUNCH had exclusively reported on Wednesday that the bishop who is the founder the New Salvation Church of Christ in the Igbodi area of Warri, Bishop Sunny Jero, was being interrogated by police detectives from the Warri area command over an allegation linking him with the militant group.
The report generated uproar leading to the arrest of the petitioners for false accusation against the suspects.
They were arraigned on a charge of false accusation, an offence punishable under Section 125 of the Criminal Code Cap c21 of Delta State.
Delta State Police Public Relations Officer, SP. Celestina Kalu, in a statement on Thursday exonerated the pastor from the allegation after his house and church were searched by security operatives where nothing was found.
The two suspects, Smart Etiemor and Robinson Dagbolo, while being arraigned before a Warri South Chief magistrates’ court, ASP Sunny Irabor who is the prosecution counsel, told the court that the suspects allegedly petitioned the complainant on July 14, 2016 over human trafficking, gun running and sponsoring the Niger Delta Avengers.
Irabor told the chief magistrate, C.I Moeteke, that after obtaining a search warrant, the police combed the church and residence of the Bishop in Warri alongside the suspects where no incriminating substance was found against the bishop.
He noted that the complainant (Jero ) had to rearrest the suspects for false accusation.
Both suspects were however ordered to be remanded at the Okere prison, Warri, pending legal advise from the Department of Public Prosecution on the case.
Speaking on the allegation after the arraignment of the suspects, Jero told newsmen that he was innocent of the accusation, saying great calamity always befalls anyone who blatantly lies against a man of God.
He agreed that he and the suspects hailed from same Ogbinbiri community in Egbema (Ijaw) Kingdom of Warri North but added, “I am innocent, I have nothing to do with the avengers.”
According to him, “They wrote a petition against me and police come to search my church and house in the presence of the suspects and nothing incriminating was found, then I was granted bail.
“I have to write a petition against them through my lawyer for arresting me illegally, that is why they were arraigned today.”
He commended PUNCH for the report which he said hastened the investigation into the matter and subsequent arraignment of the suspects in court.
PUNCH