Lagos pastor dupe member of 5 million naira A report was made to the police over the general overseer of a church (Redemption Ministrie) by a mmber, also the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) were petitioned , the member explained how the General Overseer of her church, David Aderemi Babalola duped her of N5million. Details of the petition, dated July 6, 2015, to the Special Fraud Unit of the Nigeria Police and other anti-graft agencies like the EFCC showed how Babalola allegedly duped his member (Ms. Rita Okoro) of the sum of N5, 000,000 (five million Naira). The petition, said to have been written on behalf of Ms. Okoro by Lagos-based rights organization, Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN) called on the Nigeria Police Special Fraud Unit, and other anti-graft agencies (EFCC) to immediately commence investigations into the fraudulent activities of the so called Prophet Babalola. According to the petitioners, Prophet Babalola obtained the said sum from Ms. Okoro and her family members in the guise of assisting them to secure the release of their brother who has been in police detention in Lagos since January 17, 2015 accused of kidnapping. “on an ocaasion in January 2015, following the arrest and indefinite detention of Rita Okoro’s brother by police operatives from the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS), Ikeja, Lagos over a case which has not been investigation, how ever he was said to be the one giving informations to a kidnapping gang, Rita Okoro and her sister, who were then, members of Prophet David Babalola’s church, approached him for assistance believing and trusting him as a true Prophet and their spiritual father.” Laying false face and double mind, trying to tell that he was not happy at the situation his church member was facing, Babalola was said to have promised to assist to secure the release of the detained man. That was how he was able to duped and scam his church members of their hard earned money. “as soon as the Prophet Babalola received the money, he made some phone calls to an unknown ‘top police officer’ at the Force Headquarters, Abuja and later told them (Ms Okoro and members of her family) that he will need to travel to Abuja to see the said top police officer whom he said they were best of friends, he guaranteed us that the so called friend was in the best to assist to transfer their brother’s case to Abuja and make it easier to have him set free from there. “The next day, Prophet Babalola called Rita Okoro and told her that he had spoken with the police who he claimed was his friend in Abuja as well as a lawyer and that he is demanding the sum of four thousand five hundred dollars ($4,500) which he said would cover his air fare and other logistic costs, as well as lawyer’s fee to secure the release of her brother; Ms. Rita Okoro told Prophet Babalola that she was not in the right state to provide such a huge sum of money, but the Prophet urged and influenced her with his office to join efforts with her family members to ‘look for something and send across’, assuring that her brother’s release was sure.” The petitioner alleged that on January 29, 2015, she deposited the sum of N1,000, 000 to the prophet (Babalola’s) Zenith Bank Account, with number 2008810809. As if that was not enough, the prophet continue to pressurise the member( Ms. Okoro) for more money. The petitioner alleged that more sums, ranging from N300, 000 and N1, 700,000 were paid into the prophet’s bank account. In total, the sum of N5 million was paid to the prophet with the hope that he was working to secure the release of Ms. Okoro’s brother. “Ms. Rita Okoro deposited another three hundred thousand naira (N300, 000) on March 10; deposited another One million naira (N1, 000.000) on March 16; yet another one million Naira (N1, 000,000) on March 19, and subsequently, on different occasions in Prophet Babalola’s church and in his house, she also gave him the total cash sum of one million, seven hundred thousand naira (N1, 700,000). These covered further expenses he claimed he needed to make for sundry purposes including his airfare, hotel accommodation and sundry other expenses during the several trips he claimed to have embarked on to Abuja in his purported pursuit of the release of Ms. Rita Okoro’s brother. The bubble, however, burst when it turned out that on a day Mr. Babalola had claimed he was in Abuja to facilitate the release of Ms. Okoro’s detained brother, the petitioner ran into him in Lagos. He incoherently tried to explain away his presence in Lagos. That was when it dawned on the Ms Okoro, that the prophet had been swindling her. She is now praying the authorities to intervene and help her recover the sums that the prophet obtained by false pretext.
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