Israel Oladele Ogundipe (aka GENESIS) the presiding shepherd of the Celestial Church of Christ, Genesis GLOBAL, was jailed by Lagos State High court , and this was after he was found guilty of defrauding a U.K- based woman. It has been revealed that the cleric man would be spending two years in prison.
The presiding judge, Justice Olabisi Akinlade, levelled A seven-count charge against him, given the ruling based on only the second and fourth charge. The judge then cancelled all the other charges against him because there was lack of evidence to convict him on these counts. That is, the defendant was discharged of counts 1,2,3,5,6 and 7 for lack of evidence and was charged with seven counts of charges, bordering on fraud and obtaining money by false pretenses, preferred against him by the Lagos State government.The lady he reportedly defrauded is Mrs Olaide William Oni, and she was defrauded of the sum of N17 million.
The lady gave the cleric the money to procure some landed properties on her behalf thinking that he is a good pastor.The woman stated in court that she met the pastor for the first in 2002 when she visited Nigeria as she was taken to his church for prayers by her step-sister.
Narrating her encounter, the lady said;“He told me something about my husband in one of his prophecies, that I should not have anything jointly with him because he was having an affair behind my back.He gave me a liquid to drink and I started vomiting. I was asked to sit down and he lit a candle and said I should be there until the candle goes off.He then took me, my step-sister and cousin to a bush in Sango Ota area of Ogun State, where he bathed with me with some concoctions near a river.I sent the N17 million in five tranches of N900,000, N2.5 million, N8.5 million, N2.7 million and £12,000 between 2002 and 2005 to purchase the property on my behalf, however, he didn’t buy any land.When I confronted him about this, he started threatening my life and blackmailing me.”
Popular Nigerian cleric, Prophet Israel Oladele Ogundipe Jailed for Fraud
