Police Arrest Pastor for Allegedly Defrauding Businessman of N3m in Land Deal

Punch reports that the Lagos State Police Command has arrested a pastor identified as Gabriel Olakitan for allegedly defrauding a businessman of N3 million in Ayobo, Lagos.

The 64-year-old pastor reportedly sold a plot of land, which had been handed over to him by a London-based friend, to the businessman for N3 million and issued him a receipt to that effect. However, the land had been given to the suspect by his friend identified as Bayo to sell for N2.9m. But after collecting N3m from the businessman, Pastor Olakitan only paid N1m into Bayo’s account.

Trouble started when Bayo came to Nigeria sometime in 2014 and reportedly stopped workers hired by the businessman identified as Cornelius to clear weeds on the land for construction. 

The case was then reported at the Area M Command in Idimu, where an agreement was said to have been reached that the pastor would refund Cornelius his money in instalments. But the suspect didn’t keep his end of the agreement and was re-arrested by the police from the Ayobo division.

Cornelius told the police that all efforts to claim possession of the land or get his money back had been futile. Meanwhile, the pastor reportedly confessed to the fraud, saying he had spent part of the N3 million to settle a land case in Ogun State.

A police prosecutor, Inspector E. Ayomide, brought Olakitan before an Ogba Magistrate’s Court on two counts bordering on fraud. The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charges before the presiding magistrate, Mrs. O.J. Awope. The magistrate granted him bail in the sum of N500,000 with two sureties in like sum and adjourned the case to August 12, 2016.

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