Ingrate: How Lagos pastor lured bishop into prison

Daniel Anokwuru

When a Lagos-based Bishop, Abraham Chukwudi Okoh, decided to help out a fellow pastor in distress, he never thought that the man would not only bite the finger that fed him but would also send him to prison.

According to the story, a Lagos-based Pastor, Moses Nwachukwu, the founder of Faith Builders International Church, Okokomaiko, allegedly traded the freedom of Okoh, Bishop of Apostolic Christian Network (ACN), under Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), in place of his own. Bishop Okoh, suffered untold pain, humiliation and financial loss for a crime he knew nothing about due to Pastor’s Nwachukwu’s ingratitude.

It was gathered that Pastor Nwachukwu and his younger brother, Samuel Godson, were involved in a failed Ponzi scheme of N4,028,000.00. The duo had allegededly convinced a staff of Eugenecho Oil and Gas Limited, Ojo, Lagos State, Patrick Orji, to invest in what they called crypto currency digital money, which they told him was a technique used to regulate the generation of units of currency, and verifying the transfer of funds.

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The suspects had told Orji that they traded with investors’ money, and paid their investors one per cent of their investment package. Orji, it was gathered, allegedly stole the company’s funds to invest in the crypto business. When the company discovered that some money was missing, they arrested Orji, who fingered the pastor and his brother, as his accomplices. The two were also arrested by policemen from Lagos State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID), Panti, Yaba.

Narrating how he landed in prison to the reporter, Bishop Okoh said Pastor Nwachukwu, whom he has known for years, called him around November 2018, claiming to have gone to bank to carry out some transactions but was arrested by policemen, guiding the bank and taken to Ojo Police Station, where he was detained. Okoh said he quickly ran to the station to find out what was his offence, but was told that Nwachukwu was arrested based on an order from SCIID.  He said Nwachukwu was later taken to SCIID, Panti. His younger brother, Samuel Godson, was also arrested. At the SCIID, Okoh said out of his kind gesture, he stood surety to provide  Nwachukwu and Godson, anytime the police required them. The two were released on bail to him but the two suspects went into hiding soon after. All efforts to get them report to the police proved abortive. Rather, they told the Bishop to also go into hiding like them.

Bishop Okoh refused to heed their advice, owing to his position and reputation. Rather he reported himself to the SCID. He was detained and arraigned the next day in Yaba Magistrate Court, and was remanded in Ikoyi Prison for failure to fulfill his bail condition.

Okoh said: “It was around November, 2018, I was in the church, when Pastor Nwachukwu called me that he had been arrested in the bank when he went to Alaba International Branch of the bank to carry out some transactions. He was detained at Ojo Police Station. I went to Ojo to find out what he did; the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) told me that the case was from Panti, and not his station.

“After two days, Nwachukwu was taken to Panti. Despite my busy schedule, I managed to visit him at Panti to know what was actually his offence. The Investigating Police Officer (IPO) told me that Nwachukwu, his brother and one Orji Patrick, working in an oil company, stole the sum of   N4,028,000, from the company. But Pastor Nwachukwu denied the allegation. He said they had met Orji in a seminar, where he, Orji, after the seminar, agreed to invest about N 2,000,000.00, in the crypto business.

“He said he never knew whether Orji stole the money or not, as they believed that Orji would have saved the money he was investing in the business from his earnings, working in a company. It was not until the police arrested them that they heard that Orji stole the money. I also helped the police to fetch out his younger brother, who was then at large. Because of my position, I mediated in the matter and pleaded with the police. They released them on bail to me.

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“I told both of them to discuss on how to return the money Orji invested in the business through them. I also told him that as a pastor, he was not supposed to involve himself in such business because it is like gambling business. That was how we left.

“I kept on disturbing him to endeavour to pay back the money, even if is in bits, and also meet the company manager. Surprisingly, I was in the lecture room, in the school I lecture when the police called me on February 15, 2019 that the people I stood surety for had refused to honour their invitation for long. I called Nwachukwu; he told me that his lawyer was working on it. I told him to report to the police with his brother; he refused and urged me to also go into hiding.”

Bishop Okoh said he never believed his ears, when the pastor told him to go into hiding. He said as a bishop, his reputation would be soiled if he heeded the advice and what would he preach to his congregation, stressing that he never committed any crime, and there was no reason to hide. “When he told me to go into hiding, I was shocked. I asked myself, where would I hide, and for what offence? I refused and told him to meet me at SCIID. I went there on February 18, 2019; I was detained in the cell and he refused to show up. The police called him several times that he was  suffering an innocent man for doing well; he still refused to show up.

“On February 19, 2019, I was taken to Yaba Magistrate Court, where I was arraigned alongside, Patrick Orji, the company staff. That was how I was arraigned for helping him. I was remanded in Ikoyi Prison for crime I knew nothing about. I spent days before I was released, that was after perfecting my bail condition.”