Israel Ogundipe of Celestial Church of Christ jailed for theft

Admin l Thursday, November 19, 2020

 

LAGOS, Nigeria – Isreal Ogundipe, a popular  televangelist and the head Genesis Parish of the Celestial Church of Christ, Alagbado, Lagos has been jailed for a year by an Ikeja High Court for unlawfully converting a woman’s property and stealing.

Ogundipe, who has been on trial since 2011, was charged with  seven-counts of obtaining by stealing, inducing delivery of money by false pretenses, unlawful conversion of property and forgery.

Delivering the judgement, Justice Olabisi Akinlade found the prophet not guilty of five-counts of stealing, inducing delivery of money by false pretenses, giving false information to a public officer forgery.

She however found him guilty of two-count of stealing and unlawful conversion of property not delivered and sentenced him to a year in prison on each count.

The judge ordered that he should  pay the complainant, a London-based architect, Mrs Oladele Williams-Oni the sum of N11million which he illegally obtained from her.

“Both sentences are to run concurrently and the defendant is to restitute the complainant the sum of N2.5million in respect of count two (stealing) and N8.5million in respect of count 4 (unlawful conversion of property not delivered ),” the judge said.

Following the judgment, Mrs Rotimi Odutola, the lead prosecuting counsel for Lagos State thanked the court for the judgment. According to the prosecution, Ogundipe committed between Aug. 30, 2002 and  2005. During that period, he is alleged  to have fraudulently obtained N14million and 12,000 pounds in various tranches from the complainant.

Between Aug. 30, 2002 and December 2003, at No. 32, Bello St., Ladipo Estate, Shogunle, Lagos, he allegedly received N2.9million from Williams-Oni  to purchase an uncompleted building for her but  fraudulently converted the money to his own use.

The prosecution said that between March and December 2003 at Commint Bereau De Change, Broad St., Lagos he stole 12,000 British pounds from the complainant which was meant for the purchase of four plots of land for building a mosque.

He is alleged to have stolen N8.5million between October 2002 and March 2003 from Williams-Oni for the purchase of landed properties in Lagos,” Odutola said. The prosecution also noted that on diverse days between 2002 and 2003 he had received N2.6million from the complainant by falsely representing to her that he  is man of God and that the money is to be used for his church.

“Ogundipe also forged a Nigerian International Passport which carried his photo in the name Sanyaolu Babatunde Solomon at the Passport Office located at Oba Akinjobi St., Ikeja, Lagos,” Odutola said.

NAN reports that the offences contravenes Sections 390(9), 419 and 467(1)(b) of the Criminal Code Law of Lagos 2003.