A prophet with a white garment church, simply identified as Femi, has been arrested by the Special Fraud Unit, Milverton, Ikoyi, Lagos, for allegedly collecting N70 million to treat a businesswoman who was diagnosed with fibroid. Femi was arrested after the businesswoman’s husband lodged a complaint over allegation that the prophet had threatened to kill him and inherit his property.
The businesswoman had been diagnosed with Fibroid for 14 years, and had been running from pillar to post, to find a cure for her ailment. After she was introduced to Pastor Femi, he promised to cure her.
“A notable Nigerian, who was living in peace with his family before the prophet came into their lives, had reported a case of swindling of his wife, consequent upon which we began investigation.
“Facts of the matter is that wife of the prominent Nigerian was having medical challenges as she was suffering from fibroid. The woman met a female trader, who introduced her to Prophet Femi of a Celestial Church in Oke-Ira, Ogba, Lagos.
“The prophet assured her that he would be able to handle the situation.” Lamorde, who was represented by SP Ngozi Braide, said.
“They charged the woman N98,000 fee, which she paid and Prophet Femi gave her some herbs, which stopped the bleeding for a while.”.
“When the bleeding started again in 2014, she went back to the prophet, who brought in a new twist to the matter.
“He hypnotised the woman and convinced her that her husband was responsible for her problems. Prophet Femi went further to convince the woman that her husband was also after her children’s lives, accusing him of being a cultist.
“He went further to tell her that the bleeding was the source of her husband’s money. That the more it flowed the richer the man would get
“The woman was asked to bring money for sacrifices and rituals, which she paid into the prophet’s account. She also built a five bedroom duplex at Ojokoro area of Lagos and another in Ado-Ekiti for the prophet, upon his request.
“The prophet also warned the woman to stop sleeping with her husband and instructed her and her children to bring 70 percent of the money her husband gave to them monthly to him.
“For three years the prophet would come and sleep in the man’s house, without his knowledge. There was a time he allegedly gave the woman’s only son a concoction to drink and he started behaving like a mad person.
“He took him (son) to Ekiti, gave him something to drink and he became normal again.”
The sham was discovered when one of the victim’s children, who came visiting from London, reportedly paid N20 million into the prophet’s account. She felt something was not right, so she reported the matter to her father, who confronted his wife. His wife broke down and confessed that she had been giving money, cars etc. to the prophet.
When the prophet realized that his ruse may have been exposed, he fled to Ekiti, from where he was arrested.
Braide displayed the monetary transactions between the business woman and the prophet and said:
“After his arrest, we discovered that one of his accounts read over N70 million, which was paid in by the victim. “We learned that the prophet has two other accounts. Preliminary investigation showed that the suspect had collected a chieftaincy title in Ekiti with the money.
“Also recovered were a Toyota Highlander 2014 Model and a Lexus GX 470 2014 model, which were bought for him by his victim. The suspect did not deny all the allegations against him.
“He proudly told us that he is a prophet and a native doctor. He told us that he helped the woman and uses brain to collect money from her, since the family is wealthy. “We have decided to bring this to the public domain to warn people about fraudsters, who hide under churches as prophets or pastors.
We have saved this man (husband of victim) from death as that would have been the next plan.”