Alleged theft: Court remands pastor in correctional custody

Adebisi Onanuga

A Pastor, Afolabi Samuel, has been remanded in Correctional custody for allegedly stealing the sum of $90,000 and N4.5m belonging to the Registered Trustees of the Living Faith Church, Cannanland, Ota, Ogun State.

Pastor Samuel, an accountant and member of the church, was arraigned Monday by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a two-count charge of stealing and conspiracy before Justice Mojisola Dada.

The EFCC prosecutor, S. O. Daji, said that the defendants, who worked as the treasurer of church, committed the alleged offences sometime between September 24 and December 31, 2018 in Lagos.

The EFCC alleged that Samuel and one Mrs. Blessing Kolawole, a staff of the Covenant University, now at large, conspired and dishonesty stole the money and property of the Registered Trustees of the Living Faith Church.

The pastor and Mrs. Kolawole were accused of dishonestly converting the sum of $90, 000 and N4.5 million to their own personal use.

According to a petition to EFCC dated June 26, 2019 and signed by Chioma Okwuanyi & Co legal practitioners, Pastor Samuel was employed in the Accounts Department of the Church to maintain proper records of funds.

The firm, acting as solicitors to the Registered Trustees of the Living Faith Church, said that both Pastor Samuel and Mrs. Kolawole connived with others at large and started taking ‘criminal advantage’ of their positions as the church’s treasurer and a staff of the university respectively.

According to the firm, “The duo started carrying out various acts of alleged breach of trust and fraudulent commission of economic crime and sabotage, by unlawfully diverting to their private use, the church’s money in Pastor Samuel’s custody without the permission of the church.

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“The duo continued doing so until sometime in the month of December, 2018 when they ran out of luck and all their secret acts of economic sabotage and financial crime of fraudulently tampering with the church’s money was revealed.

“When confronted by the church, Pastor Samuel, who lives around the church at Raji Oba, Lagos admitted committing the act and even voluntarily made a written confession wherein he detailed how they have been stealing from the church”.

Justice Dada thereafter remanded him at the Correctional custody and adjourned the matter till December 10, 2019 for hearing of bail application