EFCC arrests suspected fraudulent Church General Overseer for N3.9m fraud in Ilorin

Eze Ihedigbo

Ilorin Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), arrested the General Overseer of CAC Freedom City Prophetic and Deliverance Ministry, Ilorin, Prophet Adeniyi Abiodun James, for allegedly defrauding a member of the church to the tune of N3,980,000.

While the commission reacted to a news report in a leading national newspaper entitled: “EFCC Stopped Service of Charges on Binance Chief, FIRS Alleges”.

The report is untrue, misleading, and removed from the facts before the court.

According to the Head, of Media & Publicity, EFCC, Mr. Dele Oyewale, the victim, Oluwole Babarinsa,  had in a petition to the Commission, alleged that Prophet James called him out during a church programme some time in 2021 that he had a revelation that he would travel abroad.

According to the petitioner, the cleric, in the course of giving the revelation,  asked him about his preferred country, to which he replied “Canada”. Thereafter, they reportedly struck an agreement to talk later to perfect arrangements for the trip.

The prophet,  he said, later told him that he had a friend in Lagos who could help him facilitate his relocation to Canada, but for N1.7 million and N2.5 million for processing flight tickets and travel documents, respectively.

The petitioner further disclosed 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. He said that all efforts and entreaties to the suspect to refund his money yielded no positive result.

The suspect will be arraigned in court upon the conclusion of investigations.

On the  Binance Chief, at no time did the court bailiff approach the EFCC to serve any of the Binance executives in its custody with a charge.  At the last sitting of the court, counsel to the Federal Inland Revenue Service,   FIRS, Moses Ideh, did not lodge such a complaint before the court. He only told the court that the Service was yet to serve the defendants.

The Commission, therefore, finds the news item preposterous and embarrassing.  The public is enjoined to ignore it entirely.