The Lagos State Special Offences Court is currently handling a case of a prophet who swindled a man to the tune of 59.7 million naira.
The victim, Obinna Ezenwaka, explained that the prophet who goes by the name, Cletus Ilongwo, defrauded him after he performed some hypnotic activities on him. Obinna also stated that he used items such as cross chains, the blood of a ram, spiritual perfumes, and oil on him.
When Cletus was arrested by EFCC, the agency revealed that he collected the money at different intervals in 2016 and acted like he would use it to secure a piece of land at Diamond Estate for the victim.
At the court proceeding, the victim narrated, “Sometime in April 2015, a neighbor took me to the prophet’s church and after a particular Sunday, he gave me an appointment to see him, because he wanted to know the reason why I came to the church. I told him that some people owed me and they were not willing to pay and that I wanted him to help me pray so that I could recover my money.
“He asked me to write the names of the debtors in the sequences of seven, nine, 14 and 21, which I did; another day, he gave me another appointment that the Holy Spirit ministered to him that I was going to recover my money to the last kobo and I left.
“One Sunday in October 2015, he gave me another appointment. He introduced me to two of the church members, who were close to him, Samuel Amaefule and Maxwell Adiele. He said I should be working with them and that God would answer my prayers and that I would recover my money.
“The two members got close to me; they visited me in my office and home to deliver any message from the prophet and each time I was with them, any business-related discussion I had with my customers over the phone, the two of them would tell the prophet and when next I see him, he would start giving revelations about the transactions, making it to look as if he was making a true revelation.
“In the third week of January 2016, the prophet asked me to come to the church that God had a message for me; when I got there, he took me to where they were selling rams and said God asked him to make a sacrifice on my behalf and he paid for the ram.”
Ezenwaka progressed, “We bought the ram and went back to the church; he asked me to write the names of my debtors in the sequences of seven, nine, 14 and 21 in red ink. I gave him the names and he called the two members he had introduced to me earlier and a man from the North called Talif Aliu, whom he said works with the Nigeria Customs Service.
“He killed the ram and used a bowl collect its blood and persuaded me to bathe with the blood, but I declined and he said I should not doubt the message of the Holy Spirit, so I bathed with the blood. After bathing, he gave me the head of the ram and told me to follow him to a place in the church’s premises where he dug the ground and buried the head of the ram with the names of my debtors.
“He asked me to take the remains of the ram to my landed property in Lagos and also asked the two members to follow me to bury the torso of the ram and that I should come back two weeks later.”
The victim subsequently explained that Cletus showed him some documents of landed property and asked if he could help him secure a loan from his bank. Ezenwaka said he turned him down expressly and was not willing to help. However, the prophet brought out oil, perfume, and a chain, stating that the chain would get him a promotion.
He narrated, “After all this, he asked me to go, and the next morning while I was in a meeting in the office, he called me on the phone and asked me to come and see him immediately.
“When I got to his church, he requested the money again and I told him I couldn’t get it, but he promised to pay if I could raise it as he had found a Chinese company that wanted to buy the property from him.
“He asked me to kneel down that he wanted to pray for me and I did; he gave me a chewing stick with a red cloth tied to it and he asked me to chew the stick in his presence. He gave me a powder that I should rub on my face and whenever I asked him the reason for all these, he would tell me that they were directives of the Holy Spirit and that I should not doubt them. It was at this point I lost consciousness.
“When I went back to the office, I started transferring money to the account number he provided and whenever I called the prophet that my customers were asking for their money, he would tell me to look for the money elsewhere to pay them.
“The prophet kept promising to refund the money and he kept borrowing from me and I kept giving him. Whenever I told him about how my customers were disturbing me for their money, he would ask me to come and do sacrifices so that they would not disturb me again.
“He told me to write their names and that I should not tell anybody about it, not even my wife; and when he noticed that I was gradually regaining my consciousness, he threatened that I was going to die if I told anyone. He claimed that was the message from God.”
Ezenwaka explained that since the prophet refused to pay back the money, he had to report to the police.
However, Cletus was granted bail and still continued to threaten him. He then reported the case to EFCC who have now arraigned him in court. The case has been adjourned to 4th of February.
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