Thursday, April 21, 2011[size=14pt]
How pastor duped me of N6.65m - Victim
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Ade Adesomoju


A businesswoman, Mrs Rose Bello, on Wednesday told a Lagos High Court in Ikeja how a pastor of the Foursquare Gospel Church, Revd. Kehinde Akanji, and two others defrauded her of N6.6m in a purported contract transaction.




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The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had arraigned Akanji, Enoch Idris and Amuzie Oku-Ani and the Communication Development Company, Abuja, before Justice Funmilayo Atilade on a six-count charge of fraud and conspiracy to commit fraud following the claimant's petition to the commission.

Bello made this revelation in her evidence-in-chief led by her lawyer, Mr. A.B.C Ozioko, at the resumed hearing.

The witness had claimed that Akanji approached her company, BVM Productions, on May 13, 2008 with the promise of helping to secure a contract with the Nigerian Football Association.

She said: "They told us that they were looking for a company that will handle the promotion aspect of the contract that they had secured with the NFA.

"They told us that we will be producing television jingles and newspaper advertisements, T-shirts and also organise road shows in Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt.

Bello further said that she had to approach First Bank of Nigeria Plc for a N7m loan given the financial requirement of the contract.

According to the witness, she was thereafter given two weeks to make the fund available so that their company could execute the contract quickly because of time constraint.

She said, "I only yielded to the pastor's persuasion when he asked me to trust as a reputable man of God and assured me that there was not going to be problem.

"I paid a total sum of N6.65m to him in installments between June 6 and July 4, 2008."

The witness also claimed that she kept calling the defendants on phone expressing her worry that she had not seen the advertisements both in newspapers and on TV.

Testifying further, she claimed that she was surprised at the end of July when defendant's company sent her a letter of job completion.

However, she added that her attempts to recover her money from the defendants up till when he petitioned the EFCC in August 2010 were futile.

She recounted her ordeal with the bank in May 2010 in its bid to recover the loan from her, which she said she informed the defendants about.

She said she found it shocking when Akanji in company of one of his church evangelists, Evang. Egbedi J.E, confessed to him in June 2010 that they never did any contract with the money.

She said they had come to plead that she should not institute any legal action against the pastor and other defendants, as such would damage his reputation.

The witness also claimed that she decided to petition the EFCC after the pastor's confession and had only recovered N1.2m through the commission's intervention so far.

http://odili.net/news/source/2011/apr/21/809.html