Friday, March 29, 2024

Pastor, wife face trial for allegedly swindling Church of N1.7m

Uba Group

BY TIMOTHY AGBOR, OSOGBO

A cleric, Pastor Ignatius Ajayi; and his wife, Esther; have been dragged to court by the leadership of their Church, Trumpet of the Last Day Ministry, Osogbo, Osun State, for allegedly duping the Church of the sum of N1,700,000.

Ajayi, aged 46, and his 35-year-old wife, were accused of conspiring to fraudulently obtain the said sum from the Church under the pretense of purchasing one and half plots of land for the Ministry, which they failed to do.

The Police arraigned the couple on five-count-charge bordering on conspiracy, fraud, stealing and forging of landed documents.

They were alleged to have issued the forged landed document to the Church, collected the money and converted it to their personal use.

The charge read that “You, Pastor Ignatius Ajayi, on January 23, 2021 at about 2pm at Dagbolu area, Osogbo did fraudulently obtain the sum of N1, 700,000, transferred into your UBA account number 21136687764 by one Joel Femi Adeniyi in pretense to purchase one and half plots of land for Trumpet of the Last Day Ministry located in Osogbo which you know full well that is false.

“You, Pastor Ignatius Ajayi at the same date, place and time did steal the cash sum of N1,700,000 by converting the money to your personal use, being the property of Trumpet of the Last Day Ministry located at Dagbolu area, Osogbo.

“You, Pastor Ignatius Ajayi, did forge the receipt that bear Akinola and family at Number 15, Oke-Ola Street, Ota-Efun, Osogbo and issued to the Trumpet of the Last Day Ministry located at Dagbolu area, Osogbo. You, Ignatius Ajayi and Esther Ajayi, did conspire to forge a land agreement document and issued the same to the Trumpet of the Last Day Ministry located at Dagbolu, Osogbo.

“You (couple) did conspire among yourselves to commit a felony by collecting the cash sum of N1, 700,000 from the Trumpet of the Last Day Ministry, Osogbo, and converting it to your own use.”

Police prosecutor, Inspector Bose Shoyemi, said that the defendants committed offences contrary to Section 383 and punishable under sections 419(1), 390, 467 and 516 of the Criminal Code, Cap 34, Volume II, Laws of Osun, 2002.

The defence counsels, Tunbosun Oladipupo and Kehinde Adepoju, urged the court to grant them bail in liberal terms.

Magistrate M. A. Olatunji admitted the couple to bail in the sum of N1 million with one reliable surety each in the same amount.

Olatunji said that the sureties must be owners of landed properties and must be residents within the court’s jurisdiction.

The case was adjourned till May 30 for hearing.

Meanwhile, in an interview, Ajayi, an employee of the Ministry, confirmed that the Church leadership asked him to purchase a piece of land which he allegedly bought.

He claimed that however, after buying the land, his wife had a health challenge which made him re-sell the land in order to raise the hospital bill.

“The truth is that I actually bought the land and I had already paid. But my wife had a fibroid and I needed to urgently raise money for her treatment. I sold the land to an agent but he only paid an advance of N800, 000. He is yet to pay me the balance and I have been searching for him,” the cleric claimed.

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