My abductors knelt, asked for prayers before I was released – Apostle Okoriko

Ini Billie, Uyo

Founder of Solid Rock Kingdom Church, Apostle John Okoriko, freed four days after his abduction has said his kidnappers requested prayers before his release.

The cleric, who was abducted in his residence last week at Mkpat Enin Local Government Area, Akwa Ibom State, noted that two of the five-man gang that abducted him knelt down before him asking for prayers before he was released.

Narrating his ordeal to church members during service on Sunday, the septuagenarian stated that the kidnappers tortured him more than necessary so that they could get the N100 million ransom for his freedom.

He said: “The torture was much. They did terrible things to my body to force me to bring money to them. I told them I have not seen such money in my entire life.

“They told me I am the “Adeboye”, the richest pastor closer to them in Akwa Ibom State. They did all manners of things to me.

“Out of the five-man-gang that abducted me, two of them knelt down and asked me to pray for them before they released me in the evening to go,” he explained.

Apostle Okoriko commended the former Chairman of the State Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Prelate Emeritus of Methodist Church, Sunday Mbang, and founder of Believers Assembly, Apostle Isaiah Isong for their roles in ensuring his release from the kidnappers.

He added that the duo set up a prayer team where people gathered to pray for him including some International Organisations who suspended their programmes to pray for his freedom.

According to Okoriko, after his release, he first visited the capital ground of his church because it was close to the kidnappers’ den, and Prelate Sunday Mbang the next morning, following the dream he had about Mbang immediately after his release.

He said, “That night, I saw my father who died in 1990 sitting in a place like a court session with great men and women. When he talked to me, he turned to Prelate Sunday Mbang.

“In the morning, I showed myself to Prelate Mbang and prostrated before him and told him my experiences. Quoting the scripture from Psalm 129: 2, I told him that from my youth, people have attacked me but they never prevailed over me.”