The Cross River State police command will soon charge to court the pastor of Royal God’s Commandments Ministry, one Mr. Tony Obo-Ekpeyong, for allegedly abducting and killing a 19-month-old baby girl, Success, for ritual purposes.

Following the incident, a branch of the church, along Abua Street in Calabar, was demolished by an angry mob at the weekend.

The pastor was arrested last week Thursday by the police and items recovered from him included a human heart suspected to be that of the abducted baby, some charms, fetish items and pictures of various persons among others.

While parading the suspect with six others in Calabar on Tuesday, the Cross River State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Hafiz Inuwa, said it was not true that the suspects in the crime have been freed.

The spokesperson of the command, Irene Ugbo, said they were arrested when the parents of the deceased raised an alarm that their child had been abducted by some masked men who stormed their house.

She said some operatives were immediately deployed to search the church and its environ and that they found some incriminating items and arrested the pastor and six others.

Ugbo said: “On August 24, we received a distress call that one pastor in a church in Calabar South had killed a baby girl. When we got there, the heart of the child was still shaking. The suspect lied that the heart was that of a fowl. We have sent the heart to the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital for proper analysis.

“We actually heard some rumours that the police have collected money to release the suspects. We have called the press here today for the world to know that the suspects are still in our custody and investigation is ongoing. The police cannot release murder, kidnap or other categories of suspects without due process. We are going to charge the suspects to court immediately.”

The suspect, however, denied the allegation, saying: “I was praying for one of our members who was sick when the police came and arrested me. The heart they saw was that of a fowl. We don’t operate any shrine in the church. The thick blood that was seen on the altar was that of a goat and a fowl that we killed to celebrate with our members after our three-day fasting programme.”

Faith Inyang, the 20-year-old mother of the baby, corroborated what the police said. “I recognised one of the men because of his stature. He lives around our area and he normally passes through our house. Up till now, I have not seen the body of my daughter apart from the heart that was found there.”