Lagos prophet arrested by 100 security operatives arraigned for N54.5m fraud

Prophet Cletus Ilongwo, the founder of Power of the Holy Ghost
Evangelical Ministry a.k.a Tuesday Tuesday Church, was on Monday
arraigned before an Ikeja Special Offences Court for allegedly
defrauding church members of N54.5 million.

Recalls that over 100 security operatives stormed the Lagos
church located at Shoba community, Abule-Ado, Lagos on Saturday to
arrest Prophet Ilongwo for the alleged fraud.

Prophet Ilongwo, was arrested over allegations of scam made
against him by some members of his church and the community.

The security agents, numbering about 100, made up of officials
of EFCC, and policemen stormed the church to arrest the prophet who
was initially sheilded by his members but was eventually
arrested.

At Monday’s proceedings, Prophet llongwo, who was dressed in a
long red robe, pleaded not guilty to the 11 count charges brought
against him by the EFCC.
According to the EFCC, Ilongwo committed the offences between
January and April 2016.

In one of the charges, Ilongwo collected N13. 5m from one Obinna
Ezenwaka on the pretext that he would help him purchase a property
located 165c, Diamond Estate Amuwo Odofin.

He was further accused of collecting a sum of N10m from Ezenwaka
also under the pretext of purchasing the samr property, but however
failed to do so.

During the period, Prophet Ilongwo collected the sums of N10m,
N7m, N3m, N150,000 from Ezenwaka through his Zenith Bank account
1003455899.

After the Prophet was arraigned, his lawyer, P.N Orji informed
the court about a pending bail application he had filed on behalf
of his client.
The EFCC prosecutor, Ahmed Yerima, however did not oppose but asked
for time to respond to the application.

The presiding Judge, Justice Sherifat Solebo adjourned the
matter till 14th and 19th of November respectively, for hearing of
the bail application and for trial to commence.

Prophet Ilongwo was initially arrested early this year by the
Police and EFCC after a former member of the church reported that
he defrauded him of N85 million.

After he was invited for interrogation, he jumped bail and
efforts made to re-arrest him failed until his surety was arrested
by security operatives.