Posted by By HAMMED BODUNRIN, Osogbo on
Osun State Police Command Wednesday paraded two clergymen, Bishop Adesoji Idowu and Rev. Isaac Adedejo, for allegedly duping over 300 persons to the tune of N30 million under the guise that they wanted to help them go abroad through evangelical programmes.
Osun State Police Command Wednesday paraded two clergymen, Bishop Adesoji Idowu and Rev. Isaac Adedejo, for allegedly duping over 300 persons to the tune of N30 million under the guise that they wanted to help them go abroad through evangelical programmes.
Parading the suspects, Osun State Police Commissioner, Alhaji Abubakar Audu, said the bad priests were arrested in Okuku, in Osun State and Egan, Lagos State following complaints from the victims who were neither sent abroad nor their money returned.
According to the CP, the money variously collected by the suspect between May and July 2004 ranged from N250, 000 to over N300,000 per person, totaling about N30 million.
He explained that while the Bishop, who was the founder of the Christ Care Group Ministry in Lagos, was the initiator of the oversea evangelical programme scam, he made the Reverend, who is the founder of Call for Harvest Church in Okuku, Osun State, the national coordinator.
However, Rev. Adedejo tried to undercut his partner in crime as he collected between N250, 000 and N300, 000 from each of their victims, but remitted only N65, 000 per candidate to Bishop Idowu. Within two months, he allegedly built a church and a house.
When Daily Sun spoke with some of the victims, they revealed that apart from giving both Adedejo and Idowu money, they also attend a three-day special programme with fasting and prayer, tagged "Spiritual Retreat" for a special anointing for the trip.
The victims said they each paid N165, 000 as training fees, N5, 500,00 for boarding pass, between N1, 000.00 and N3, 000.00 for church registration (as only Christian and church members could attend), N30, 000.00 for basic allowance, and N10, 000.00 for clearance, among others.
Letters were issued to each of the potential travellers to the effect that they would go to Arizona, Texas or Florida in the United States. According to one of the letters, the programme was to be held in collaboration with the Inter Church Immigration Ministries, Chicago, Illinois and International Organisation for Migration.
However, when the victims got tired of the frequent shifting of travel dates, for almost one year, they reported the case to the police.
When Daily Sun sought Bishop Idowu's comments, he declined initially, but later said he had been sending people abroad before but had a problem with the deal in question.
On who ordained him Bishop, he said it was an inspiration from God. The Reverend claimed ignorance of the intention of his partner, adding that it was the bishop who instructed him to build the church the police mentioned.
Meanwhile, the police have vowed to take the case to court as soon as investigation was completed.