#3.9m: Pastor Defrauds Church Member – EFCC Apprehends.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has nabbed an Ilorin based clergyman, Prophet Adeniyi James, for allegedly defrauding a member of his church to the tune of N3.9 million.
In a statement released by the EFCC’s Head of Media and Publicity, Dele Oyewale, on Saturday, revealed that the Ilorin Zonal Command arrested James on 2nd of April, 2024 for the alleged offence.
According to the source, James is the General Overseer of Christ Apostolic Church, CAC, Freedom City Prophetic and Deliverance Ministry in Ilorin.
It was reliably gathered from Oyewale that the victim, Oluwole Babarinsa, in a petition filled to the Commission, purported that James called him out during a church programme sometime in 2021, stated that he had a revelation that he (Babarinsa) would travel abroad.
“The petitioner said the cleric, in the course of giving the revelation, asked him about his preferred country, which he replied ‘Canada’ and they agreed to talk later in order to perfect arrangements for the trip”.
“The petitioner said James later told him that he had a friend in Lagos who could help him facilitate his relocation to Canada, but at a cost of N1.7 million and N2.5 million for processing of flight ticket and travel documents, respectively”.
“Babarinsa added that he had to sell some of his properties and took some loans before he could raise N3,980,000 which he gave the prophet to facilitate his quick relocation to Canada”.
“After prolonged waiting with no result, the petitioner became agitated and began to query the prophet’s vision, prompting him to ask for a refund of his money”.
“All efforts and entreaties to the suspect to refund his money yielded no positive result,” EFCC spokesman said”.
Oyewale affirmed that the suspect would be arraigned in court after the conclusion of the investigations.
