A prosecution witness (PW2) and victim of advanced fee fraud, on Thursday, narrated to a Plateau State High Court how a fake pastor and a husband and wife allegedly defrauded her of N28.9 million.
The fake pastor, Anu Ojo-Olakunori, and the couple, Mr and Mrs Josephine Kunle Farinuola, who posed as parents of Ojo-Olakunori are being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) before Justice Christine Dabup of High Court IV, Jos.
The trio are being tried on 16 count charge of conspiracy to commit felony to wit; obtaining money under false pretence and therefore committed offences contrary to sections 8(a), 1(1)(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and other related offences Act, 2006 and punishable under section 1(3) of the same Act.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that when the case up on Thursday, the victim, Mrs Ladi Deborah-Alabi, a Child Protection Specialist, told the Court that the trio took advantage of her following a challenge she was going through at her workplace.
Alabi, while being led in testimony by Mr E.O. Ehiablic, EFCC prosecution Counsel, said that she got to know the fake pastor through her pastor in Mountain of Fire Ministry in Bauchi State, Pastor Jaafaru Joseph.
According to her, after relating her predicament to Joseph, he told her that he would connect her with his spiritual father in the person of Ojo-Olakunori.
She said that right from that time she spoke with the fake pastor on a cell phone and he prayed for her, it became a routine until one day he sent Joseph to wash her hair with anointing oil and poured a bottle of Swan water at a road junction and in her compound.
“Thereafter, he, Ojo-Olakunor, invited me to Jos and introduced Mr and Mrs Kundera-Farinuola as his parents at Itobaba Quarters in Jos metropolis.
“I looked at the couple being elderly people, who wouldn’t allow anything fishy between us, my trust to whatever he (Ojo-Olakunor) tells me became stronger.
“Right from that time he (Ojo-Olakunor) was calling me on a cell phone on a daily basis and prayed for me some time for a good one hour.
“At first he (Ojo-Olakunori) asked to saw a seed toward solving my problems by providing N520,000 for purchase of 21 big preacher Bibles and funds to be distributed to 21 General Overseers of various ministries and l transferred those monies from my Union Bank account to his Guarantee Trust Bank account.
“Right from that day, it has been one transfer to another. Between Jan. 14 and Jan. 17, 2017, I transferred N2.3 million for the purchase of ministry land in Jos as a covenant seed.
“Again, around Feb. 28, 2017, he asked me to give him N75,000 to go to Ibadan to his spiritual father of over a 100 years to pray and fast for me but that in the midst of the fasting the old man fell into coma and was rushed to University of Ibadan Teaching Hospital for treatment.
“Around March 31, 2017, l sent into his account N450,000 for settlement of the medical bills of the old man having felt guilty that the man fell ill because he was fasting for me, “ she narrated
Alabi further disclosed that he later talked her into paying N800,000 for renting and renovating a warehouse at Grand Cereals Company Ltd. and later on June 16, 2017, transferred another N14 million for the purpose of investing in Grand Cereals Ltd. distributorship.
Other huge amounts she transferred to Ojo-Olakunori’s account were N6.75 million for a missionary Agency which needed the money for Cesarean sessions for nine (9) helpless pregnant women and N1.45 million for burying the Ibadan spiritual father that later died.
The presiding judge, who told the court that she had an official engagement to attend, adjourned the case to Nov. 15 for a continuation of hearing.