By Esther Onyegbula
A man of God (names withheld) has allegedly defrauded a former church member, Ms. Rita Okoro, of N5,000,000, being part of the total sum he had obtained from her and her family members, while pretending to assist in securing the release of her brother, who had been detained by police in Lagos since January 17.
It was learned that Ms. Okoro, and her sister, Ngozi, were members of the said prophet’s church, until they discovered that he had been taking advantage of their predicament, like many other members of his church, to exploit and defraud them.
we gathered that Rita and her family are not the only victims of the prophet’s fraudulent activities. However, not many members of his church whom he had defrauded have mustered the courage, like Rita and her family, to speak up.
Okoro told Vanguard that sometime in January, following the arrest and indefinite detention of his brother by police operatives from the Special Anti Robbery Squad, SARS, Ikeja, Lagos, over an allegation of being an informant to a kidnapping gang, and frustrated by the persistent refusal by SARS to either charge him to court or even allow their family or legal representatives to see him, they approached the prophet for assistance.
She said the prophet agreed to help and made calls to a ‘top police officer’ at the Force Headquarters, Abuja.
She said the prophet then claimed to have travelled to Abuja and then started demanding money for logistics.
She said at different times, she had given money to the prophet and paid some into his account, amounting to N5,000,000.
She said: “At this point, we sensed foul play and wrote a petition through Network for Police Reform in Nige-ria, NOPRIN, to Special Fraud Unit, SFU, EFCC and ICPC with a view to assisting me recover my money and to investigate the prophet’s activities.
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