The Delta State Police Command has arrested a Nigerian pastor known as Rev. Ignatius Ogboi of Salvation Army Church, Mbiri, suspected to be notorious kidnapper.

The police claimed that 3,871 live cartridges and a loaded English made double barrel gun were recovered from him.

The state Commissioner of Police, Muhammad Mustafa, said Rev. Ignatius Ogboi, 51, was sponsoring kidnappers and armed robbers operating within Agbor and Umunede and its environs.

Police command also said they recovered some prohibited drugs and over N4 million, believed to be ransom collected from kidnapped and armed robbery victims.

The cleric, who admitted ownership of the exhibits, however, denied the suspected case of kidnapping, illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition and prohibited drugs, including Tramadol, levelled against him.

Ogboi said he only helped the vigilantes in his community to procure the recovered items found in his possession after they complained that they were buying them at exorbitant rates elsewhere.

He said: “I am still an ordained minister of God in Christ Army Church, Umunede. The bulk of the money being paraded is very small compared to what I usually have with me if my business was still booming. I am not a kidnapper as being speculated.”