The Lagos State Police Command has
arrested the pastor of a church in the Ayobo area of the state, Gabriel
Olakitan, for allegedly defrauding a businessman of N3m.
It was learnt that the 64-year-old
suspect had sold a parcel of land in the area to the businessman and
issued him a receipt to that effect.
The land was said to have been handed over to the pastor by one Bayo, who is based in London, to sell for N2.9m.
it was gathered that the pastor, after collecting N3m from Cornelius, only paid N1m into Bayo’s account.
Trouble started when Bayo came to
Nigeria sometime in 2014 and reportedly stopped workers hired by
Cornelius to clear weeds on the land for construction.
The case was reported at the Area M
Command, Idimu, where an agreement was said to have been reached that
the pastor would repay Cornelius in installment.
But the sexagenarian did not keep to the agreement, and was re-arrested on July 7, 2016, by the police from the Ayobo division.
Cornelius told the police that all efforts to claim the possession of the land or get his money back had been futile.
He said, “Gabriel (Olakitan) acted as an
agent to Bayo. I paid him N3m for one and half plots of land in March
2013, but I was unable to take the possession of the land. I later
discovered that he only remitted N1m into Bayo’s account.
“The case was reported to the police and
all the parties were invited. But Bayo did not show up. We wanted to
start clearing the weeds on the land when Bayo brought some policemen to
stop us.”
The pastor reportedly confessed to the fraud, saying he had spent part of the N3m to settle a land case in Ogun State.
“I am a pastor and a land agent. It is
true I collected N3m for the land – N2.9m for the land and N100,000 to
process the receipt. I only remitted N1m to the owner, Bayo, through his
wife. I know what I did is wrong and is against the law. I will try my
best to pay the remaining N1.9m to the owner of the land so that the
buyer can take the possession,” he added.
A police prosecutor, Inspector E. Ayomide, brought Olakitan before an Ogba Magistrate’s Court on two counts bordering on fraud.
The charge read, “That you, Gabriel
Olakitan, sometime in March 2013, at about 10am on Ibidapo Street,
Ipaja-Ayobo, in the Lagos Magisterial District, did unlawfully obtain
the sum of N3m from one Oke Cornelius, thereby committing an offence
punishable under Section 312 (a) (b) of the Criminal Law of Lagos, 2011.
“That you, on the same date, time and
place, in the aforementioned magisterial district, did fraudulently
convert the sum to your personal use, property of one Oke Cornelius,
thereby committing an offence punishable under Section 278 (b) of the
Criminal Law of Lagos, 2011.”
The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charge before the presiding magistrate, Mrs. O.J. Awope.
The magistrate granted him bail in the
sum of N500,000 with two sureties in like sum and adjourned the case
till August 12, 2016.
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