Four
years after its conception by some members of an Abuja parish of the
Redeemed Christian Church of God, a housing scheme for members of the
church has taken the appearance of a fraud in the hands of three pastors
and two sidekicks.
Peter
Imonhiosen, Adeola Oluwafemi Johnson and Cosmas Mbanu, all pastors of
the Redeemed Christian Church of God, RCCG, Mr. Sunday Adeagbo, a
lawyer, and Mr. Femi Shobola were arrested last month by the Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, following a petition that accused
them of diversion of funds paid by church members for a housing scheme. CONTINUE AFTER THE CUT
Back
in 2009, members of the Resurrection Chapel, a parish of the Redeemed
Church of God in Lugbe, Abuja, were presented with the prospect of
owning property in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT. The project was
initiated by a group, which calls itself Excellent Men Fellowship. The
group kicked off the process of acquiring plots of land from the Federal
Capital Territory Development Authority, FCDA,
The
Excellent Men Fellowship, EMF, which is made up of adult male members
of the Resurrection Chapel and led by one Pastor Bisi Akande, urged the
entire congregation to support the scheme which they did. But before the
process was completed, Pastor Akande was transferred from the parish
and his successor was Pastor Imonhiosen, whom he turned over the bank
statements for the contributions to.
Shortly
after Akande’s departure, the FCDA granted approval for and allocated
parcel of land for an estate at Pyakassa in the Abuja Metropolitan Area
Council, AMAC. By early 2010, the acquisition was completed and the
church called a meeting to give members who had paid an update.
At
the meeting, which held in March, 2010, subscribers were told that each
of them was entitled to a plot measuring 600 square metres and each
subscriber was to pay N250,000 net of all taxes. Subscribers were
directed to pay into an account at the defunct Oceanic Bank (which has
since been swallowed by EcoBank). Within a short time, the account
started bulging with money.
Crisis
began to brew shortly after Imonhiosen, under whose tenure the land was
handed over to the church, was transferred to another parish and was
replaced by one Pastor Adeleye. Imonhiosen was said to have been piqued
by his transfer. Sources within the church told this medium that
Imonhiosen, abetted by Shobola, EMF President, and Johnson, the chapel’s
assistant pastor, who doubles as the Chairman of the Resurrection
Chapel’s Land Board, launched a plot to wrest the control of the scheme
from the church.
Church
sources said the handing over notes Adeleye got from Imonhiosen were
devoid of information on the scheme. Adeleye’s efforts to take over the
leadership of the scheme, as it is customary, were thwarted by Shobola
and Johnson.
Adeleye
was angered by Johnson’s involvement in the plot to take the scheme
from the church and responded by sending him on transfer to a “small”
RCCG parish in the Kuje Area Council of the FCT. It did not achieve
Adeleye’s aim, as Johnson, Shobola, who still remained at the parish,
and Imonhiosen hung on to the scheme. Shobola proceeded to register the
scheme as Redeemer Excellent Men Housing Foundation, an entity with
trustees, at the Corporate Affairs Commission. It was issued a
Certificate of Incorporation No. CAC/IT/ NO. 0502. Shobola and his
cohorts, naturally, emerged as members of the Board of Trustees. This
was done with neither the knowledge nor consent of subscribers, whose
contributions were used to procure the land. With this move, the pastors
and church leaders removed the project from the control of the church.
Their
whims began to dictate the direction the project would take. The first
sign of this came via the alteration in the previously announced size of
the plots. From the 600 square metres initially promised, the size was
reviewed to 500 square metres.
In
2011, the pastors invited subscribers to another meeting, where it was
announced that the cost of the plot allotted had risen to N1.5 million.
The steep rise was attributed to what the pastors claimed was the high
cost of infrastructure facilities planned for the estate. All the former
allocation letters were again withdrawn, with a promise of reallocation
upon payment of the new rate.
At
one of the meetings between subscribers and the management committee,
Pastor Johnson informed them that his committee had spent N162 million
on the estate. He claimed that N80 million went into the acquisition of
the land, while N82 million was expended on perfecting the title. These
claims were not accompanied by any proof.
He
then pushed his luck too far when he told allottees that they entered
into a contract with the management committee upon the acceptance of
their allocation papers and warned them against speaking to the press on
matters relating to the estate. He then told those who believe they
have better ideas in the management of such a scheme to go and set up
theirs.
With
that, subscribers flew into rage, yelling and violently demanding
evidence in support of the claims made, especially that of
infrastructural development and the matter spilled into public domain
via the press.
Following
media reports, the General Overseer of RCCG, Pastor Enoch Adeboye,
dispatched a team led by one Pastor Pitan Adeboye from the church’s
headquarters to investigate the matter and audit the accounts of the
project. Adeboye also directed that a caretaker committee be set up to
take over the management of the scheme.
The
leadership of the church in the North implemented Adeboye’s directives
and set up a caretaker committee under the leadership of Pastor Amos
Dele Babade, Provincial Pastor of FCT Province 4, with Mr. Sule Paul, a
legal practitioner and church leader, as secretary. With the sacking of
Imonhiosen, Johnson and their gang members, the caretaker committee
recovered some of the scheme’s properties. These include a brand new
Toyota Hilux truck, certificate of incorporation used to severe the
scheme from the church as well as documents relating to the project land
and bank statements.
However,
the caretaker committee displeased subscribers when it announced that
funds had been sourced to pay off those who missed out on plots, as
directed by Adeboye. Subscribers angrily asked how the borrowed funds
would be repaid and by whom since the church had washed its hands off
the scheme. They also wanted to know how money realised thus far was
spent by the sacked board before real progress could be made. They
feared that successful subscribers at the housing scheme would later be
asked to contribute more money for the repayment of the loan and as
such, demanded to know how and where the funds were sourced and at what
terms such would be repaid.
This
necessitated another meeting, which was attended by a Deputy
Inspector-General of Police from the Force Headquarters, who was invited
by the caretaker committee to forestall the outbreak of violence.
At
the meeting, the caretaker committee explained how members of the
ousted management committee frustrated its efforts to resolve the crisis
by their introduction of an outstanding bill of N75 million, which they
claimed were owed to contractors for work done on the estate. The new
bill was submitted by Imonhiosen’s team after the caretaker committee
said it had secured N40million for the reimbursement of those who
completed payment, but were not given plots.
The
caretaker committee accused the sacked board members of deliberately
frustrating the church’s genuine efforts to take over and resolve the
issues at the scheme and suggested the arrest of Imonhiosen and his
gang.
The
police duly obliged. But upon their arrest by policemen from the Lugbe
Police Station, the caretaker committee handed back all the recovered
items, including bank documents, to the sacked board without any
explanation.
This
irked the subscribers, who accused the church leadership of abetting
the pastors. Thereafter, the subscribers set up a committee to fight
their corner. The subscribers’ committee challenged the caretaker
committee’s handling of the issues and demanded a copy of the
investigation report as well as the audited report sent from the
church’s headquarters.
Threats of legal action followed, prompting a disclaimer from the church.
•Another
section of the estate. Where are the infrastructural developmentOn 15
May 2013, the disclaimer published in THE PUNCH warned the general
public that RCCG Region 10 has no hand in the Redeemer Excellent Men
Housing Foundation (the new name the project was given) and warned that
the church has no liability for the activities of the operators of the
scheme. The disclaimer, signed by Sule Paul’s law firm, also warned that
the use of the name of RCCG on the letterhead and receipt of the scheme
as well as on the signboards of the scheme’s various sites, was done by
the operators in their bid to misinform the public. The church,
however, kept the Toyota Hilux truck it recovered from the ousted
committee.
It
was on account of the dissatisfaction with the way the church
leadership has handled the matter that some subscribers petitioned the
EFCC. The petition, signed on behalf of over 200 subscribers by their
lawyer, Rotimi Adalumo, accused the ousted board of embezzling about
N600 million through series of accounts opened and managed by Pastor
Johnson and his friends.
It
called on the EFCC to compel them to render full and detailed account
of their stewardship from 2009, when the scheme came into being, and
retrieve the original land documents of the housing scheme from the
church officials.
Acting
spokesman of the EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, confirmed receipt of the
petition, but declined further comments because the allegations are
still being investigated.
An
investigation or even prosecution of the accused may not deliver the
reprieve that subscribers desperately seek. This is because the Federal
Capital Development Authority deems the estate an illegal development
and has marked it for demolition. This development has provoked further
questions on the N82 million the pastors claimed was spent on
regularising the title to the land.
As
at press time, Pastor Johnson, who had earlier been fingered in an N8
million scam at his former post in Calabar, has been released on
administrative bail. So have Imonhiosen, Adeagbo, Shobola and Mbanu.
They have been directed to report daily at the EFCC pending conclusion
of investigations.
Source: PM News
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