A pastor, identified as Kingsley Amayo, has been arrested by the police in Edo state in connection with the death of his wife, Faith Amayo.

The deceased’s family had written a petition to the Zone 5 Police Headquarters in Benin, Edo State, alleging questionable circumstances surrounding the death of their daughter.

The police swooped into action and reportedly arrested Amayo, the pastor of a popular Pentecostal church in Uromi town, Esan North-East Local Government Area of the state.‎

He was arrested alongside three other pastors of the church.

The Zonal Public Relations Officer, ZPRO, DSP Emeka Iheanacho, who confirmed the arrests to newsmen in the state on Thursday, said the discrepancies in the report made to the police on the death of the 38-year-old woman informed the investigation.

According to him, a case of motor accident was reported at Ekpoma Police Division by the pastor while the family of the deceased wrote a petition to the Assistant Inspector-General of Police in the zone, alleging murder.

Iheanacho said, “The matter was reported at the Edo State Command where initially they were investigating a fatal motor accident, before the family of the late woman, Faith Amayo initiated a petition to the office of the Assistant Inspector-General of Police alleging foul play.

“So the petition before AIG is from the family of the deceased where they suspected that the husband must have used the woman for ritual. So, that is the matter we are investigating presently.

“Officials of the Zone 5 Police Headquarters arrested Amayo and three other pastor of his church which will not be named until investigations are complete.

“The investigating team will unravel the circumstances of the woman’s death,” the ZPRO assured.

Speaking before newsmen, the embattled brother of the deceased, Engineer Fidelis Evbuomwan, said the deceased who was yet to have a child was properly married to Pastor Kingsley Amayo in 2011.

He said, “On Tuesday, July 26, 2016, Pastor Kingsley Amayo had through his elder brother, one Chief Iso, informed the family that their daughter, Mrs Faith Amayo, had died in a motor accident at Ujogba, while her husband was driving her to Benin City.

“We had to instruct our lawyer to initiate a petition when Amayo gave conflicting accounts of how our sister, his wife died in an accident he was also involved in.

“Our findings revealed that no case of accident was recorded at Ujogba nor reported at Ekpoma Police Division in charge of the area that fateful day.

“There was no report of the other vehicle which was allegedly involved in the head-on collision with Pastor Amayo’s Sienna car.

“Who rescued them and the hospital where my sister was pronounced dead, who embalmed her corpse before she was taken to mortuary in Uromi?

“Why was it not reported to the police or why did they not wait for her family members to see her,” he quizzed as he appealed to concerned authorities to ensure that justice prevail in the matter.