WOLVES IN SHEEP CLOTHING : Fake ‘Pastor’ dupes businesswoman

SEGUN ADIO
Delight Onyekachi, a Lagos-based businesswoman, is blessed with two things: Apart from being well-to do, she also uses her God-given wealth for the service of humanity. Those close to her testified that Onyekachi, 32, is a cheerful giver especially to those in need that come her way. Her wealth notwithstanding, Onyekachi is still not a happy woman as she has some personal issues that her money could not buy for her. Many of her church members attest that Onyekachi is not a happy person in spite of her wealth because wherever and whenever an opportunity presents itself during church service, Onyekachi would cry aloud and complain to God about these personal issues before her, asking the church elders to pray for her over these personal problems of hers.

As a result, Onyekachi’s personal problems are well- known to all members of her church. While members of her church always join their faith with hers towards finding a solution to those problems, one member of the church had a totally different idea. He thought of Onyekachi’s problems as merely an avenue to make money. He has caused Onyekachi to be swindled of N800, 000. The church member, identified as Lambert Ejike worked his way into the prayer group to which the businesswoman belongs. He soon began to attend prayer meetings where personal problems are shared among members and prayers offered for them. He also suggested that all members of the group should endeavour to visit one another at home for further prayers.

On Wednesday, December 12, 2012, Ejike met with Onyekachi and the two of them engaged in a marathon prayer session. In the middle of the prayer session, a man, who later identified himself as a pastor, burst in and joined them in praying. The selfproclaimed pastor is Obinna Obi. After the prayer session, ‘Pastor’ Obi claimed he received some revelations from God about Onyekachi that he must relate to her. Obi thus went to relay all the problems confronting the businesswoman to her. Onyekachi, to say the least, was stunned because neither she nor Ejike knew the ‘man of God,’ at least to the best of her knowledge. Immediately ‘Pastor’ Obi finished relaying all her problems to her, Onyekachi reportedly knelt before this ‘strange and powerful’ pastor, asking what could be done to alleviate her problems.

At that point, Ejike, who had remained silent all along while the ‘pastor’ relayed his message to Onyekachi, asked how the man knew that much about the woman. Obi promptly told the two prayer mates that that the spirit of God directed him to the woman and also that God asked him to deliver Onyekachi from her problems and also save her life from impending danger. Apparently moved by the ‘pastor’s ‘spiritual gift,’ Onyekachi asked what she would do to take her reproach away from her. Obi then told her that God said he would need about N800, 000 to buy some items with which he would solve all her problems. The woman did not hesitate but reportedly rushed to the bank to withdraw the required sum and gave it to ‘Pastor’ Obi, who promised to be back in three days after.

Three days passed and there was no sign of ‘Pastor’ Obi. A month after the encounter, he still did not show up. Onyekachi became suspicious of Obi. Onyekachi’s prayer partner, Ejike, also stopped coming for the usual prayer meetings and even the main church service. She promptly reported the case at a nearly police station and law enforcement agents swung into action. Somehow, ‘Pastor’ Obi was traced to No 4, Ogunseye St. Idimu, Lagos State. He was picked up and placed in police custody for further investigation into the crime. Obi did not waste time to reveal the architect of the crime as Onyekachi’s prayer partner, Ejike. Speaking to police investigators, Obi said, “I was in my house one day when Ejike brought a business to me.

He came and told me that a certain rich woman in his church has some problems and he believed that we could swindle her. That was how he told me all the woman’s spiritual problems and said I should came into their prayer meeting as a pastor and reveal to the woman all her problems and demand for N800, 000 from her.” When police investigators got to Ejike’s house, he was said to have abandoned the place and taken to his heels. A police source said that the two men collaborated to defraud Onyekachi of the sum because of the trust she had in her church members. Onyekachi, in her statement before law enforcement agents, claimed that she had no inkling that the man that she had been praying together with for months could set her up the way he did. “This is difficult to believe.

I never imagined that kind of thing. This was somebody I opened my mind to when we prayed together. I never knew he had other plans in his mind,” Onyekachi said. Obi is due to be arraigned in court over incident, while a manhunt has been launched for Ejike, a police source said.