Dr Chris Okafor, Michael Omolayo
By Victory Oghene
The police in Lagos have started investigation into the allegations of fraud and obtaining by false pretence made by a businessman and former member of the Grace Nation Church International, Lagos, Michael Omolayo Ibukun against the founder and General Overseer of the church, Dr Chris Okafor.
This followed a petition to the Commissioner of Police by Omolayo alleging that Dr. Okafor obtained money from him by false pretence and two of his vehicles totalling N106.178 million.
Giving details of how the incident took place, the businessman said as the Managing Director of Blessed Energy Resources Limited, he was introduced to the pastor by one of his friends called Ayobami, now late, in 2021.
According to him, the pastor who claimed to be a man of God, brainwashed him with fake miracles and asked him to supply 42,000 litres of diesel valued at N50 million.
“After that, he refused to pay me a dime up to this moment and he also brainwashed me by collecting my two vehicles, one Mercedes Benz M-Class with number plate, KRD 575 HH (black in colour) and Mercedes Benz ML350 with number plate, KTU 546 HE (black in colour) all valued at N30 million.
“I also transferred N14.378 million into his bank accounts and N11.800 million in cash.”
The business man, who claimed that his attraction to the pastor was because he did a contract for Lagos State government but they have continued to owe him huge amount of money, prompting his resort to prayers, also alleged that the pastor warned him not to reveal the secret to any person and that if he does, it will be the end of his life.
“To my utmost surprise, a woman, Bose Olasukanmi, used by the pastor for fake miracles to deceive me was arrested by the police. It was then I realised that I have been duped by the pastor and all efforts made for him to return my vehicles and pay my money proved abortive.”
The business man who said he was in the protocol department in the church further alleged that the pastor also threatened his life by warning that he should stop demanding a refund of his vehicles and payment of his money.
At press time, police sources said one of the vehicles had been recovered from the person the pastor sold it to while frantic efforts were in progress to recover the second vehicle.
However, sources said all efforts to invite the pastor failed but he only sent a legal representative to deny all allegations against him.
While reacting to the allegations via a statement on Saturday, June 29, 2024, which had earlier been published by NATIONAL WAVES, the church said it had no case to answer.
A statement issued by the church’s spokesman, Henry Okoduwa, said: “There cannot be anything farther from the truth. For the records, the said cars were willingly given as an offering to God by Ibukun who, joyous and in an expansive mood for the blessings he received from God, decided to drop the car keys on the altar after giving a testimony during one of the church’s services that was broadcast live about three years ago.
“Ibukun had particularly been enamoured by the fact that God broke the jinx of no male children in his lineage when his wife conceived and bore him a son following the prayers of Dr Chris Okafor, the church’s head pastor.
“That is why we find it particularly strange that the same person who willingly gave his cars with the original documents attached would turn around a few years later to demand that they be given back.
“The church is also scandalised to hear him allege that he was being owed N50 million for the diesel fuel he supplied it when in actual fact he was paid all the monies owed him for the few times he transacted business with the church.
“It therefore does not need high intelligence for anyone to fault Ibukun’s debt story because it’s illogical for him to have recently gone to Dr Chris Okafor, the church’s patriarch to make a request of a N10million loan when all he needed to have done was demand that part of what was being owed be paid.
“He had asked for a loan which he said he wanted to re-inject into his business, and despite being unable to offer the assistance because of the enormous resources that had been sunk into the rebuilding and expansion project the church undertook in 2023, God’s servant, Dr Okafor still sought for a way out by referring him to his bank.
“That the bank could not help at the end was not because the man of God did not want to. Mr Ibukun failed to convince the bank that he would be able to repay the loan. They said he was not credit-worthy.
“The church authorities also faulted Ibukun in the area of offerings and tithes giving, saying that it does not compel people to give.
“Thankfully, we run live telecast of all our programmes/services and our mantra is to always allow people to give what they can afford at any given time. The church does not monetise its services or the blessings derived therefrom, nor does it compel people to give what they are not led to give.
“Since we abhor the practice of making altar calls in which members or visitors are asked to drop their cars and landed properties, it is sheer contradiction to imagine that Ibukun was asked to.
