Ibadan-born pastor, Tim Omotoso, founder of Jesus Dominion International, headquartered in Durban, South Africa, may spend the next 12 days behind bars. It has emerged.
Omotoso was arrested on Thursday afternoon at the Port Elizabeth Airport shortly after arriving. from Durban.
He was denied bail by a court last Friday after arraignment over allegations of sexual assaults against at least 30 ladies in his church.
The 58-year-old, according to The Herald, a South African newspaper, quickly disappeared to the toilet with an unidentified woman seconds after arrival.
But police operatives traced him to the toilet where he was handcuffed and bundled away to massive cheers by onlookers.
“Within minutes of the first passengers disembarking, police rushed on to the tarmac. But Omotoso was seen walking into the toilets minutes earlier, accompanied by a woman,” the paper reported.
The paper said that about eight heavily-armed policemen were in the airport searching for the pastor.
It said that the policemen went into the toilet, dragged out the unidentified woman before arresting Omotoso.
Omotoso’s lawyer, Terry Price, who was present at the airport, had reportedly protested, “You cannot arrest him here without a warrant!”
Price accused the South African police of maltreating Omotoso.
“They (the police) are worse than Mugabe’s thugs in Zimbabwe,” the lawyer was quoted as saying.
“Since when do you arrest an unarmed pastor with eight armed men? He is not a danger.”
Robert Netshiunda, a spokesperson of the Tactical Response Team, TRT, the special police unit that arrested Omotoso later said: “We can’t say he wanted to run. We can say he sought refuge in the toilets.”
The police alleged that Omotoso over the years trafficked about 30 young women from various branches of his church to a house in Umhlanga, KwaZulu-Natal where he allegedly exploited them sexually.
