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Christ Embassy defrauded: Suspects docked, members scold critics

Posted by Paul "EFCC" Hawk Adams on April 20, 2010 at 7:30pm
Christ Embassy fraud: Suspects docked, members scold critics
By Chioma Igbokwe

Saturday, April 17, 2010
Hope of getting reprieve by the suspects who were alleged to have defrauded Christ Embassy Church to the tune of N60m has been dashed as all efforts to convince their General Overseer, Pastor Chris Oyakhilome to forgive them failed. The suspects have been charged to court on a two-count charge at Ikoyi High Court and risk being jailed if found guilty.

They pleaded not guilty to the charges and were granted bail. Those arrested are, Chinelo Ezeagwuna, Essien Mabel Ufonabasi, Keneyinboh Miriam Eneyi, Orie Nwakego Felicia and Bassey Bassey Charles.

Saturday Sun reported last week that the suspects who were active members of the healing school, a department of the church, had begged Oyakhilome to apply the principles of forgiveness by dropping the charges against them..

According to the Commissioner for police, Special Fraud Unit (SFU), Moses Sabo, the suspects where arraigned on a two count charge bordering on conspiracy and stealing. “ No body is above the law that is why upon completion of the investigation they were charged to court. It is left for the judge to decide what becomes of them.”

As reported in the newspaper, in a bid to be among those who testify in church to speedy progress, four members of the church engaged in what the police suspect is fraudulent in the micro finance bank, popularly known as ‘Parralex’, established in the church’s premises in Lagos. These persons allegedly diverted over N60m into two dedicated personal accounts and shared it.

The bubble burst when operatives of the SFU, Lagos swooped on them. The suspects were alleged to have opened several accounts with the bank, using fake names. The fraudulent account was used to divert the money. They were alleged to have debited the bank’s general ledger and transferred same sum of money to the various fraudulent accounts. This act which started in 2008, continued till 2009 when the fraud was detected.

Meanwhile, Nigerians have condemned the act, blaming the church for deceiving these people into stealing in the name of God.

Some Nigerians who felt scandalized about this sordid development in the house of God reacted accordingly

Sekuru Gora said he is yet to understand how these churches manage to brainwash people to lose their minds. “They prey on peoples greed. The suspects were aware that what they were doing was wrong. They were encouraged by the pastor to get rich quickly by latching at existing opportunities. Prosperity gospel is nothing other than legalized thievery. Religion has been abused especially by these Pentecostal churches. I for one will never be fooled by some greedy men of God to enrich them at any cost. I don’t need to go to church to do well and live a good life. I work hard and help a lot of people, something that most of these churches don’t do.”

On his own part, Kunle, lashed out at the suspects for asking pastor Chris to forgive them instead of blaming them for their act. “Are they not aware that it is the twisted get rich quick gospel that their pastor has been preaching to them that pushes most of his church members to engage in illicit and criminal activities? I am even made to understand that most of the prostitutes in Ikeja attend CEC. What is the church’s business in setting up a micro finance bank in the first instance? Personally I think Pastor Chris should be held accountable for this fraud as he is in the business of breeding criminals.”

While some are blaming the act on Pastor Chris others are of the view that everyman is accountable for his own sin, as Pastor Chris never encouraged them to steal.

Steven asked the suspects to admit that it was their greed not Pastor Chris’s message that led them to steal. “Some people in a congregation steal and blame it on the message they heard. Did the message say go and steal? Their greed for quick wealth led them to do what they did and does not in any way invalidate the message and the existence of members that are obedient to the dictates of the word of God in the same congregation.”

Adebayo Ogunsaya called on the critics of Pastor Chris to listen to his messages and pinpoint where he encourages anyone to steal. “One of the things he emphasized early this year is that the year will not favour a man with criminal tendencies. He said doors of prosperity would be shut against people with such character. He said some people didn’t know that some doors have been shut against them already by criminality. He even went as far as saying that if any one has supplies to do in a contract, minimize the gain, such one should not inflate the amount beyond proportion. You should get to hear his teachings yourself than all these hearsays of yours. Pastor Christ is a balanced teacher and can never condone criminality. If he teaches on prosperity, its only because its scriptural. Paul and Jesus taught on prosperity too. So will you blame Jesus for the criminality of Judas?”

Chioma Onwubiko threw a poser to Christians who are busy condemning Christ Embassy. She asked: “Now for you Christians that worship in the “Perfect Church”, I have this question for you: “Can you beyond reasonable doubt proclaim that the church where you worship is 100% free of those that steal, those that fornicate, those that lie, those that commit murder, those that covet, those that harbour hatred against others, those that commit adultery, love-peddlers, etc”?

“Can you vouch for every member of that your “Perfect Church”, that every single one of them is obedient to every single dictates of the word of God? Can you?”

Very Good Question indeed !
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Sanusi responds to critics of Bank reforms

Posted by Politics X on September 2, 2009 at 4:35am
The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, yesterday promised to resign if the recent intervention to sanitise the financial services industry fails.The governor said this at the bi-monthly Monetary Policy Meeting, which held on Tuesday in Abuja.Mr. Sanusi, responding to insinuations that the intervention was politically motivated, said time would tell, emphasising that the primary motivation for the intervention is to protect depositors and shield the industry from collapse.Read communique hereHe also denied allegations that CBN’s action was a ploy to prepare the grounds for a take over of the banks by foreigners.It’s the economyAccording to Sanusi: “Where we are today, as far as the five banks are concerned, is that the CBN has put in money to protect depositors and creditors from any losses, to shield them from further deterioration as a result of non-performing loans. The principal objective of the action at this point in time is not to sell the banks. I have said this at several fora.”With regard to the town hall meeting held in the United Kingdom, he said it was neither to sell the banks nor to meet investors, rather he was there “to meet correspondent banking institutions and creditors, to assure them of the safety and soundness of the banking institution in Nigeria.”He added that because of the decision to change the management of the banks, the CBN needed to make itself available to international creditors, “to answer any question that might have arisen from the action we took.“The primary focus of the trip was to tell the creditors about the country’s economy and to situate our action within the context of a general process of guaranteeing financial stability,” he explained.Though, he said the CBN has not received any proposal from any prospective investor interested in any of the banks, he added that the bank will not stop any investor from expressing interest as long as it demonstrates sufficient commitment to the development of the Nigerian economy.“Once these banks have stabilised and it is time to move on, our preference is for them to have core investors that would run them professionally and put in place a governance structure that will ensure that we do not have a recurrence of the kind of things we have seen in the past. The core investor could be local or foreign.There is no law in Nigeria today that stops foreign banks from owning Nigerian banks, and the CBN will not preclude any bank from owning Nigerian banks simply because it is foreign,” he said.“That is not the same thing as saying we prefer selling our banks to foreigners. We are saying in principle that the CBN will not stand in the way of a foreign bank owning a Nigerian bank. We have stressed that any foreign bank that is coming in must be ready to show a clear commitment to the development of the Nigerian economy,” he stressed.Understanding the bailoutOn reports that some federal legislators have called the bailout illegal, saying it did not receive the approval of the National Assembly, Sanusi said he is not aware of any section of the CBN Act that demands such authorisation before the bank can perform its statutory function as lender of last resort.“What the CBN did was merely to create money to lift the balance sheets of the affected banks and increase money supply. The N400 billion loan given to the banks was (not) meant to bail them out by way of equity, but (was) a convertible facility."The CBN Act gives the CBN absolute control over the supply of money in circulation. The CBN does not need appropriation from the National Assembly to do what it did. Prior to what happened, the CBN gave these same banks and others, as a lender of last resort, money to expand their capital base."All that was done was to ask them to take the expanded facility for a longer time as quasi-capital and focus on meeting their obligations to creditors and depositors till when they are able to repay,” he said.On the monetary policy meeting, the CBN boss said the committee resolved to keep the country’s monetary policy rate unchanged at six per cent per annum, while also maintaining interest rate corridor at +/-two per cent around the MPR as well as giving approval for the establishment of an “Asset Purchase Facility Fund”.Though he said the country’s revised growth rate for last year stands at 5.99 per cent against the estimate of 6.41 per cent earlier in the year, the projection for the current year has been put at 5.33 per cent, compared to the 5.75 per cent projection.On year-on-year basis, he said the country’s inflation level has stabilised at a little over 11 per cent as at July 2009, with average rates of headline inflation and food inflation in the first seven months of the year standing at 13.11 per cent and 15.94 per cent, compared with 11.53 per cent and 15.98 per cent for last year.
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