Four years after its
conception by some
members of an Abuja
parish of the
Redeemed Christian
Church of God, a
housing scheme for
members of the
church has taken the
appearance of a
fraud in the hands of
three pastors and two sidekicks.
Peter Imonhiosen,
Adeola Oluwafemi
Johnson and Cosmas
Mbanu, all pastors of
the Redeemed
Christian Church of
God, RCCG, Mr.
Sunday Adeagbo, a
lawyer, and Mr. Femi
Shobola were
arrested last month
by the Economic and
Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC,
following a petition
that accused them of
diversion of funds paid by church
members for a
housing scheme.
Back in 2009,
members of the
Resurrection Chapel,
a parish of the
Redeemed Church of
God in Lugbe, Abuja,
were presented with
the prospect of
owning property in
the Federal Capital
Territory, FCT. The
project was initiated
by a group, which
calls itself Excellent
Men Fellowship. The group kicked off the
process of acquiring
plots of land from the
Federal Capital
Territory
Development
Authority, FCDA,
The Excellent Men
Fellowship, EMF,
which is made up of
adult male members
of the Resurrection
Chapel and led by
one Pastor Bisi
Akande, urged the
entire congregation
to support the
scheme which they did. But before the
process was
completed, Pastor
Akande was
transferred from the
parish and his
successor was
Pastor Imonhiosen,
whom he turned over
the bank statements
for the contributions
to.
Shortly after
Akande’s departure,
the FCDA granted
approval for and
allocated parcel of
land for an estate at Pyakassa in the
Abuja Metropolitan
Area Council, AMAC.
By early 2010, the
acquisition was
completed and the
church called a
meeting to give
members who had
paid an update.
At the meeting, which
held in March, 2010,
subscribers were told
that each of them was
entitled to a plot
measuring 600
square metres and
each subscriber was to pay N250,000 net
of all taxes.
Subscribers were
directed to pay into
an account at the
defunct Oceanic Bank
(which has since been
swallowed by
EcoBank). Within a
short time, the
account started
bulging with money.
Crisis began to brew
shortly after
Imonhiosen, under
whose tenure the
land was handed
over to the church, was transferred to
another parish and
was replaced by one
Pastor Adeleye.
Imonhiosen was said
to have been piqued
by his transfer.
Sources within the
church told this
medium that
Imonhiosen, abetted
by Shobola, EMF
President, and
Johnson, the chapel’s
assistant pastor, who
doubles as the
Chairman of the
Resurrection Chapel’s Land Board, launched
a plot to wrest the
control of the scheme
from the church.
Church sources said
the handing over
notes Adeleye got
from Imonhiosen
were devoid of
information on the
scheme. Adeleye’s
efforts to take over
the leadership of the
scheme, as it is
customary, were
thwarted by Shobola
and Johnson.
Adeleye was angered by Johnson’s
involvement in the
plot to take the
scheme from the
church and
responded by
sending him on
transfer to a “small”
RCCG parish in the
Kuje Area Council of
the FCT. It did not
achieve Adeleye’s
aim, as Johnson,
Shobola, who still
remained at the
parish, and
Imonhiosen hung on
to the scheme. Shobola proceeded to
register the scheme
as Redeemer
Excellent Men
Housing Foundation,
an entity with
trustees, at the
Corporate Affairs
Commission. It was
issued a Certificate of
Incorporation No.
CAC/IT/ NO. 0502.
Shobola and his
cohorts, naturally,
emerged as members
of the Board of
Trustees. This was
done with neither the knowledge nor
consent of
subscribers, whose
contributions were
used to procure the
land. With this move,
the pastors and
church leaders
removed the project
from the control of
the church.
Their whims began to
dictate the direction
the project would
take. The first sign of
this came via the
alteration in the
previously announced size of
the plots. From the
600 square metres
initially promised, the
size was reviewed to
500 square metres.
In 2011, the pastors
invited subscribers
to another meeting,
where it was
announced that the
cost of the plot
allotted had risen to
N1.5 million. The
steep rise was
attributed to what the
pastors claimed was
the high cost of infrastructure
facilities planned for
the estate. All the
former allocation
letters were again
withdrawn, with a
promise of
reallocation upon
payment of the new
rate.
At one of the
meetings between
subscribers and the
management
committee, Pastor
Johnson informed
them that his
committee had spent N162 million on the
estate. He claimed
that N80 million went
into the acquisition of
the land, while N82
million was expended
on perfecting the title.
These claims were
not accompanied by
any proof.
He then pushed his
luck too far when he
told allottees that
they entered into a
contract with the
management
committee upon the
acceptance of their allocation papers and
warned them against
speaking to the
press on matters
relating to the estate.
He then told those
who believe they
have better ideas in
the management of
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