Justice Olabisi Akinlade of the Lagos State High Court on Wednesday, sentenced popular prophet and Shepherd-in-charge of CCC Global Genesis Church, Prophet Israel Oladele Ogundipe to two years imprisonment for defrauding a UK based woman.
Oladele was found guilty of two out of the seven count charges preferred against him by the Lagos State government in 2007 on a case of fraud and obtaining money by false pretenses.
Justice Akinlade sentenced Oladele to a year imprisonment each on count two and four, but discharged him on counts 1,3, 5 ,6 and 7 for lack of evidence.
Oladele was charged with defrauding one Mrs Olaide William Oni to the tune of eleven million naira (N17m).
In her evidence before Justice Olabisi Akinlade, London-based architect, Mrs. Oladele Williams-Oni, told the court of how she entrusted Prophet Oladele with her money to procure some landed property on her behalf because she thought he was a “good pastor,” but was surprised that he swindled her instead.
According to her story, she first met the Prophet in 2002 during her visit to Nigeria, when she was taken to his church for prayers by her step-sister.
Continuing, she said: “He told me something about my husband in one of his prophecies, that I should not have anything jointly with him because he was having an affair behind my back. He gave me a liquid to drink and I started vomiting. I was asked to sit down and he lighted a candle and said I should be there until the candle goes off.” According to her, for the Prophet to achieve his aim, he allegedly took her in the company of her step-sister and cousin to a bush in the Sango Ota area of Ogun State, where she was allegedly bathed with some concoctions near a river.
She said her misfortune started when she returned to London, the Prophet asked her to invest in landed property in Lagos, which she agreed. This she did after consultations with some persons. She allegedly sent N17 million in five tranches of N900,000, N2.5 million, N8.5 million, N2.7 million and £12,000 between 2002 and 2005 to purchase the property on her behalf, which turned out to be a fraud.
