Prophet Swindles Widow of N18m

CYRIACUS IZUEKWE

A prophet with the Celestial Church of Christ, Alfa and Omega Parish, Cotonou, capital of Republic of Benin, Peter Ononuju, has been arrested for allegedly defrauding a widow, Mrs. Oluchi Grace, to the tune of N18million under false pretence in Lagos.

P.M.EXPRESS reports that the prophet has been quizzed by operatives at the Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigations Department (FCIID), Alagbon Close Ikoyi.

He was alleged to have swindled a widow with the intention of procuring a landed property for her at Lekki area of the state which turned out to be a scam.

Parading the suspect at  his FCIID office in Alagbon Close, Ikoyi, Commissioner of Police, Dan Okoro, said that Prophet Ononuju, swindled the victim and she later discovered that the land belonged to his ex-wife.

“When the lady discovered the fraud, she reported to my office and I detailed detectives to go after the prophet and he was promptly arrested” Okoro said.

He said that detectives during investigation discovered that the suspect collected N16 million cash and asked the widow to pay the other N2 million into his bank account. CP Okoro said that it goes to show that the suspect had another intention, stressing that the prophet was still being interrogated after which he would be charged to court.

The FCIID boss used the medium to warn fraudsters in the State and across the country to either repent or face the full wrath of the law. He added that the police were now better equipped to track and trail fraudsters. He also advised people to be wary of those who claim to be pastors during business transactions, saying that they tend to take advantage of the gullible nature of true believers to swindle them of their hard earned money.

“The so called prophet took advantage of the relationship he had with the widow to swindle her. From the beginning he had the intention of defrauding the woman. He started threatening to kill the woman and her children when they discovered that he had swindled them” Dan Okoro said.

The widow, Mrs. Grace, said that she had known Prophet Ononuju for over two decade and trusted him as a man of God.

She said, “As a man of God I confided him that I need to buy a property and he told me he knew someone that had one. He told me he had seen the one of N12 million and said I should not pay him the money through the bank. As a man of God I paid him cash. After the N12 million, he started giving me reasons to pay him more money. He said that he needed money for Omo onile and Certificate of Occupancy from the Lagos State Government. I paid him another N6 million but he did not give me any document.”

“I later discovered that the land in question belonged to his ex-wife who had remarried and was based in the US with her husband. My son discovered her contact from her Facebook account. When we contacted her, she told us that she was not selling. In fact, she rained abuses on us. When the prophet realised that the game was up, he started threatening to kill us. That was why I ran to the police”.

In his statement, Ononuju, said that the transaction he had with the widow was genuine until one of her sons advised her to collect back the money she had paid. He said that the land was still there, adding that all documents concerning the land were in hands of the lady.

“I acted as a middle man. She came to me to say that I should help look for a land and because of the existing relationship between the two families, I went all out to ensure that I got her a good land but look at where it has landed me” he added.