Lagos Pastor Arrested For Allegedly Duping Church Member Of Millions Of Naira

A pastor and founder of Amuwo-Odofin, Lagos-based Jesus The General Outreach Ministry, ThankGod Udechukwu, has been arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Enugu Zonal Office for alleged massive fraud.

Udechukwu, who hails from Ozalla, Awgu Local Government Area of Enugu State, was arrested on May 23.

He was alleged to have taken advantage of one of his kinsmen (name withheld) who resides in Dubai, United Arab Emirate, who trusted him as a ‘Man of God’ and scammed him of tens of millions of naira.

“I am his pastor and man of God. In fact, I used to pray for him to succeed and indeed, I prayed for him before he traveled out to Dubai,” the arrested pastor said.

Apparently with this ‘Messiah’ mindset, the self-styled minister of God set out to rip-off his victim using lies, half-truths and manipulations.

According to the victim and complainant, his traumatic ordeals in the hands of Udechukwu started with a suggestion that he hands over four Highlander SUVs he imported to him, claiming that one of his church members was willing to buy the vehicles and other consignments imported with them all of which amounted to N16 million.
The pastor later took a huge sum from the total amount realised from the deal claiming they were for logistic purposes.

He then muted the idea of starting a transport services business and suggested buying two Sienna buses.

As if under a spell, the complainant, after waiting for a while for the remittance of the money realised from the sale of those vehicles, yet still agreed to the business idea.

With nothing coming out of the transport business, the complainant said he was no more interested in the venture and instructed the suspect to sell off the two buses.

Udechukwu reportedly sold one of the buses and converted the proceed to his personal use.

Some months after, the pastor further suggested a business to the complainant and introduced him to one Chuks Amechi, who claimed to work with Nigeria Breweries Plc, and that he could assist in securing a dealership from the company.

He claimed the deal will cost the complainant N2.37 million which he then transferred to the Amechi’s company’s account in the name of Royal Homes Furniture Company Limited at First Bank Plc.

The petitioner who had hoped to use part of the proceeds from his investments to start some businesses here in Nigeria was totally devastated when on coming home, discovered to his chagrin that nothing was left as the pastor and his friend had allegedly diverted most of the money realized to their personal use.

Investigation later revealed that the self-acclaimed pastor used the money in all the businesses to expand his church buildings and take care of personal issues.

The case will be charged to court soon.