After about nine years of dragging, the gravel eventially came down on a popular televangelist and the head Genesis Parish of the Celestial Church of Christ, Alagbado, Lagos, Isreal Ogundipe, who was sentenced to two years imprisonment by an Ikeja High Court.
He was accused of converting a woman’s property and stealing.
Ogundipe, who has been on trial since 2011, was charged with seven-counts of obtaining by stealing, inducing delivery of money by false pretenses, unlawful conversion of property and forgery.
Delivering judgment in the case, Justice Olabisi Akinlade said Ogundipe was guilty of two out of the seven count charge brought against him by the state and sentenced him to one year imprisonment on each of the count.
The sentence runs concurrently, which means he would spend one year in prison.
The court found the prophet not guilty of five-counts of stealing, inducing delivery of money by false pretenses, giving false information to a public officer forgery.
Justice Akinlade ordered the convict to make restitution of N11million to the complainant, a London-based architect, Mrs. Oladele Williams-Oni on counts two and four.
Lead prosecuting counsel, Mrs. Rotimi Odutola, thanked the court for ”a well-considered judgment.”
According to the prosecution, Ogundipe committed between August 30, 2002 and 2005.
He was alleged to have fraudulently obtained N14million and £12,000 in several tranches from the complainant.
The convict was also said to have between August 30, 2002 and December 2003, at No. 32, Bello St., Ladipo Estate, Shogunle, Lagos allegedly collected N2.9million from Williams-Oni to purchase an uncompleted building for her but fraudulently converted the money to his own use.
The prosecution said that between March and December 2003 at Commint Bereau De Change, Broad Street, Lagos, the convict allegedly stole 12,000 British pounds from the complainant which was meant for the purchase of four plots of land for building a mosque.
He is alleged to have stolen N8.5million between October 2002 and March 2003 from Williams-Oni for the purchase of landed properties in Lagos,” Odutola said.
The prosecution also said that on diverse days between 2002 and 2003 he had received N2.6million from the complainant by falsely representing to her that he is man of God and that the money is to be used for his church.
The convict was also alleged to have forged a Nigerian International Passport which carried his photo in the name Sanyaolu Babatunde Solomon at the Passport Office located at Oba Akinjobi St., Ikeja, Lagos,” Odutola said.
According to the prosecution, the offences contravenes Sections 390(9), 419 and 467(1)(b) of the Criminal Code Law of Lagos 2003.
