Televangelist Ogundipe Bags Jail Term For Fraud
BY CHINYERE OBIORA, LAGOS – Charismatic Televangelist and Head Genesis Model International Parish, Celestial Church of Christ (CCC), Alagbado, Lagos, Israel Oladele Ogundipe is to spend the next 12 months in jail for stealing and unlawfully converting a woman’s property to personal use.
So says an Ikeja High Court, presided over by Justice Olabisi Akinlade, which found him found guilty of two-count of stealing and unlawful conversion of property not delivered.
He has therefore been sentenced to a year in prison on each count.
Justice Akinlade however found the prophet not guilty of five counts of stealing; inducing delivery of money by false pretences; giving false information to a public officer; and forgery
The defendant has been on trial since 2011, charged with seven counts of obtaining by stealing; inducing delivery of money by false pretences; unlawful conversion of property; and forgery.
Delivering her judgement, Justice Akinlade ordered that the prophet should pay the complainant, a London-based architect, Mrs Oladele Williams-Oni the sum of N11 million which he illegally obtained from her.
According to the Court; “Both sentences are to run concurrently and the defendant is to restitute the complainant the sum of N2.5million in respect of count two (stealing) and N8.5 million in respect of count 4 (unlawful conversion of property not delivered ).”
Following the judgment, lead prosecuting counsel for Lagos State, Mrs Rotimi Odutola, appreciated the Court for ensuring that justice is served.
The prosecution had accused Ogundipe of committing the crime between August 30, 2002, and 2005.
During that period, he allegedly obtained by fraudulently means the sum of N14 million and £12,000 in various tranches from the complainant.
Similarly, between August 30, 2002, and December 2003, at 32, Bello St Ladipo Estate, Shogunle, Lagos,
Ogundipe allegedly received N2.9 million from Williams-Oni to purchase an uncompleted building for her but again fraudulently converted the money to his own use.
Furthermore, the prosecution stated that between March and December 2003 at Commint Bureau De Change, Broad Street, Lagos, Ogundipe stole 12,000 British pounds from the complainant, an amount meant for the purchase of four plots of land for building a mosque.
Again, he was accused of stealing N8.5 million between October 2002 and March 2003 from Williams-Oni for the purchase of landed properties in Lagos.
The prosecution noted that on diverse days between 2002 and 2003, Ogundipe had received N2.6 million from the complainant by falsely representing to her that he is a man of God and that the money is to be used for his church.
Odutola also said that; “Ogundipe also forged a Nigerian International Passport which carried his photo in the name Sanyaolu Babatunde Solomon at the Passport Office located at Oba Akinjobi St. Ikeja, Lagos.”
All the offences contravenes Sections 390(9), 419 and 467(1)(b) of the Criminal Code Law of Lagos 2003 and are punishable by law.
Sources close to the jailed prophet said his counsels are already putting together papers to appeal the judgment.
