A week after the brutal murder of a Celestial Church of Christ (CCC) priest inside his church in Idiroko, Ogun State, eyewitnesses have shared details of his final moments. The priest, 54-year-old Venerable Superior Evangelist Abayomi Adetula, was attacked by gunmen disguised as worshippers during a Sunday service.
According to The Nigerian Tribune, it was reported that Adetula, who was also a senior officer of the So SAFE Corps, a local security outfit established by the Ogun State Government, founded the Celestial Church of Christ, Hebrew Cathedral, located along Baggage Road in Odo Eran, Idiroko. Contrary to some reports, his attackers did not use an axe but instead beat him with the butt of their guns before shooting him.
According to eyewitnesses, six gunmen arrived in a black Hilux van with tinted windows and a security light. They wore white garments like regular church members, which allowed them to blend in unnoticed. A witness described them as young men in their 30s. At first, they did not seem suspicious, and Adetula even exchanged greetings with two of them standing outside the church.
One witness recalled, “I came early to church, as I usually do, and saw two of the gunmen in white garments outside. When the service began, we were singing the ‘Yarah Sara’ hymn when three more of them, dressed in brother-ranked white robes, entered the parish. They looked like regular worshippers, so no one suspected anything.”
Adetula then asked this witness to fetch fuel from his car to power the church’s generator. “I was at the back of the church, pouring fuel into the generator, when I suddenly heard chaos inside. The gunmen had opened fire on Baba Adetula,” the witness said.
The attackers waited for a key moment in the service to strike. In Celestial Church tradition, members bow three times to the sound of a jingling bell. One of the gunmen, who had been kneeling close to Adetula, stood up after the third bell, pulled out a hidden double-barrel rifle, and struck Adetula in the face with the gun butt before shooting him.
As Adetula attempted to escape, a gunman stationed outside kicked him down, and the others fired at him repeatedly. “By then, the gunmen had put on masks, so we couldn’t see their faces anymore,” the witness added.
A church member handling the music equipment, Korede, initially tried to stop the attackers. “He confronted them with his fists, but when they pointed a gun at him and threatened to kill him, he ran for his life,” another witness explained.
The attackers showed no mercy. “One of them kept hitting Baba Adetula with the gun butt while his colleagues shot him at close range. They didn’t use an axe. They smashed his face so badly that it was difficult to recognize him after they finished him off with multiple gunshots,” a church member recounted.
The gunmen did not harm any other worshippers. Once they were sure Adetula was dead, they left the church in their Hilux van. When the danger was over, church members who had earlier fled returned to the scene. They gathered Adetula’s teeth and spent bullet casings before taking his body to the State General Hospital in Ilaro, where it was placed in the morgue.
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