A Magistrates Court in Kafanchan, Kaduna State, has arraigned a 55-year-old General Overseer, identified as Nelson Foni, for giving fake prophesy and duping a congregant of the sum of N1.7million.
The clergyman faced a three count charge of extortion, criminal breach of trust, and cheating which are punishable under the Kaduna State Penal Code Law, 2017.
The state counsel, Algeria Daudu told the court that the victim, Edith Emmanuel alongside her daughter attended a church programme at Gathsamen Prayer Ministry, Kafanchan, in 2016.
Foni, the General Overseer of the ministry, told them that God revealed to him that Edith’s daughter would study abroad.
However the victim told the cleric that she did not have enough money to send her child to a foreign country to further her studies but the pastor told her that all she needed to raise was N1.7m which he would invest in crypto currency on their behalf.
They agreed and gave the pastor the money.
However when the couple inquired about the investment, the pastor would tell them that it had not yielded returns.
The case was later taken to the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, Kafanchan.
In his ruling, presiding Magistrate Michael Bawa granted the defendant bail in the sum of N1million and a surety in like sum.
Bawa ruled that the surety must be a village head with at least N1 million deposit in his bank account and must produce the bank statement.
In the alternative, Foni would be remanded at the Kafanchan Correctional Centre, pending the next hearing on April 11.
