9 year old boy chained by his pastor friend now rescued by security agents

Akorede Taiwo, a 9 year old boy narrated how he was chained by his father for months. Korede’s father, Francis Taiwo, is the pastor in charge of Key of Joy Celestial Church of Christ, Ajibawo area in Atan Ota, Ado-Odo Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State. 
In his words, he lamented as he spoke with Punch saying ;

‘‘I was not fed regularly when I was chained. My father and my step-mother only fed me twice a day. Some days, I was not given any food. I want to go back to school because I want to be a doctor in the future. I also do not want to go back to my father’s house.’’ 

With the help of his neighbors who alerted the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps alongside officers from Ogun State Command, Akorede was rescued on Friday, while he was inside the room his father chained him. While they investigated the reason for the chains, it was alleged that Akorede usually steals and run away from home. These acts made his father believe he was possessed and he started chaining him since January in an attempt to cast out the supposed 'spirit' in him. It was also learnt that sometimes in may his father took him to a river with the chain on his neck for a deliverance bath. On interrogating Akorede he said ;

‘‘It is true that I stole a pot of soup and bowl of eba in our house. I also stole in the neighbourhood. My father’s inability to give money to my step-mother for the upkeep of the family caused it. But I promised not to go back to my old ways.’’‘‘I still want to return to school. I want to be a medical doctor, ’’ .

Another woman who identified herself as Korede’s step-mother,Kehinde, who is nursing a two-month-old baby, said she had warned her husband many times to desist from the nature of discipline he was meting out to Korede. She said, 

“I usually warned him concerning the way he chained Korede. I had reported him to his twin brother, Kehinde, who lives in Ota, and I also reported to a friend of his.

“When the two talked to him, he would relax a bit, but as soon as they left, he would return to his old ways.”“We got married three years ago but I learnt that he was once married to a woman from Benin, Edo State. The woman,I was told, bore him four children- two boys and two girls. I only saw the woman in a picture, I have never met her physically. She was said to have left nine years ago, shortly after she gave birth to Korede,” “All I have been doing is to beg him to stop stealing, as such act does not portray the family in good light.”

Presently, the Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, SP  Adejobi, said they had launched a manhunt for the fleeing pastor, adding that the Assistant Inspector-General of Police in charge of Zone 2 Command, Abdulmajid Ali, had taken over the matter.
“The AIG has ordered that the young boy be given proper medical attention. He will soon be handed over to the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development in Ogun State for necessary action.”


Source: Punch