Pastor, Wife Jailed For 16 Years As Court Ordered Church To Be Closed Down

MICHAEL AKINOLA 

A Lagos Court has ordered the deregistration and total closure of Temple International Church and jailed the senior Pastor, Harry Uyanwanne and his wife, Oluwakemi Odemuyiwa (a.k.a Kristein Uyanwanne), for using the name of God and the church to defraud people. 

 

P.M.EXPRESS reports that it was the judgment of the Lagos State High sitting in Ikeja, on Wednesday, which convicted and sentenced the couple alongside Temple International Church for selling a N52m property belonging to a dead woman, late Mrs. Janet Adeola Odemuyiwa and converting it to their own use.

 

The Presiding Judge, Justice Mojisola Dada, found them guilty under the Criminal Laws of the State and sentenced them accordingly.

 

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had filed seven count charges bordering on stealing, dishonest conversion, false presentation and fraud against the convicts.

When the EFCC arraigned the convicts on 25th February, 2020, they pleaded not guilty, and the prosecution commenced trial.

During the trial, the prosecution counsel, Mr. Babatunde Sonoiki, called five witnesses while the defence called two witnesses. Delivering the judgment, the judge held that the prosecution proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and therefore, found both of them guilty.

Justice Dada sentenced the duo to three years imprisonment on count one, while on count two to six, the first convict, Harry Uyanwanne, was sentenced to seven years imprisonment.

The second convict (Odemuyiwa) was sentenced to three years imprisonment, but the Court discharged and acquitted them on count seven. Pastor Uyanwanne was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment while Odemuyiwa (a.k.a Kristein Uyanwanne) was sentenced to six years. The judge ordered that the sentence should run concurrently.

Justice Dada also ordered the third convict, Temple International Church, to be deregistered and closed down.

“Using the name of God and church to defraud people, I order that the third convict should be deregistered and closed down,” she said.

The judge also ordered the convicts to restitute the sum of N31m to the nominal complainant within 60 days of the judgment.

The EFCC had alleged that sometime in March 2016, the convicts dishonestly converted the sum of N10m for their own use, property of the late Mrs. Janet Adeola Odemuyiwa.

The anti-graft agency said that the convicts, with false intent to defraud, sold the property known as Plot 32, Block 9, Magodo Residential Scheme 1, to one Mr. Kingsley Atere for the sum of N42m on the false presentation that the first convict was authorised to sell the property by the bonafide owner, the late Mrs. Odemuyiwa.

According to the EFCC, the offences committed contravened Section 1 (2) and (3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Related Offences Act No. 14 2006 and Sections 278 and 285 (1) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State of Nigeria No. 11, 2011.