An account according to Punch Newspaper has detailed how a female preacher of the Redeemed Christian Church of God RCCG, Mrs. Eunice Elisha, was on Saturday morning killed by unknown assailants while preaching around the Gbazango-West area of Kubwa, a satellite town in the Federal Capital Territory.
Recounting the ugly incident to newsmen, her husband, Pastor Olawale Elisha of the same church said his wife had gone out to preach in the neighbourhood around 5 am only for him to hear the report of her murder.
Elisha, who looked pensive and dejected, said, “My wife always went out early in the morning for ‘Morning Cry’ (evangelism). There was a particular day she went out and she told me that there was a mosque at the back where they commented about what she said. So I just cautioned her.
“This morning (Saturday), she went out around 5 am and I was still in bed because we had a vigil which she participated in for a short while because of the ‘Morning Cry’ she planned to undertake. Two of my boys are footballers, thus, they went to the football pitch to play. And when they came back, they told me that they heard some footballers saying that some hoodlums had butchered a woman who was preaching early this morning.”
Following the report of his children, he decided to check if his wife was safe.
“When I heard this, wearing only a pair of shorts, we walked towards the area my son had said the incident occurred; we didn’t see anybody but we saw blood on the ground. I asked a policeman around and he said it was true but that they had taken the body to Phase 4 Police Station.
“I went to the police station with my children and when we got there, I saw the lifeless body of my wife at the back of a police van. She was later taken to a mortuary. The incident happened between 5 am and 5.30 am because she usually went out at 5 am and returned by 6 am,” the husband of the deceased said.
The couple got married in July 2000.
“My wife was so committed to anything that is of God. She was a reckless giver to God’s work. She rarely missed any programme in the church. We have seven children,” he stated.
According to him, his wife had no quarrel with anyone that could have warranted her murder.
“I see her as a martyr and she died for Christ and whether the people are caught or not, they should forgive them. My prayer is that if they can accept Christ, that will be a gain to Christ,” the bereaved husband said.
The 42-year-old woman was a deaconess at the Divine Touch Parish of the RCCG, Old NEPA Road, Phase 4, Kubwa.
The RCCG preacher was found dead in a pool of her own blood with a copy of the Bible, a megaphone and a mobile phone.
She was found dead by residents who alerted policemen who came to evacuate her remains to the police station where her husband went to identify the body.
Meanwhile, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Police Command said it has arrested some suspects in connection with the killing of a woman preacher in Kubwa, FCT.
The FCT command’s Spokesman, ASP Anjuguri Manzah confirmed the arrest to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Abuja.
He said the Commissioner of Police, Alkali Usman, has directed the homicide section to take over the investigation.
“We have made some arrests and they are helping in our investigation.
“The commissioner of police has ordered the homicide section of the command to take over the investigation of the case,” he said.
The spokesman, however, did not mention the number of suspects arrested.
He said that personnel of the command had visited the scene of the incident and that investigation had begun.
NAN reports that the woman, whose name was not disclosed, was killed while preaching in the early hours of the day around the pipeline area of Kubwa, a satellite town of the FCT.