Pastor Arrested After His Wife Helped Him Defraud Covenant University Staff N17.8m in Ogun State

A Nigerian pastor is in hot soup while his wife is on the run after they planned and defrauded a staff of Covenant University in Ogun state.

A prisoner (File photo)

 

A pastor with Hilltop Ministry, Iyana-Ipaja, Lagos, Olotu Oluwakayode, has been arrested by the Ogun State Police for defrauding the staff of Covenant University, Ota, to the tune of N17.8million.

 

According to The Independent, it was gathered that the pastor connived with his wife, Olotu Adeola, who was a staff of Heritage Bank Plc, Canaanland Branch, Ota as at the time the crime was committed, to commit the crime.

 

Adeola was treating a loan and credit facility requests from the University between June 2015 and October 2016 when the crime was committed.

 

While the wife, still at large, was accused of posting fictitious loan facilities to the staff of the University, the fund was being diverted into the account of her husband domiciled with Fidelity Bank.

 

While parading the suspect at the Police Headquarters, Eleweran, Abeokuta, the state capital, the Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Iliyasu, said the money was diverted to account number 4010959599 with account name ‘Hebrew Entertainment Concept’.

 

Iliyasu said the arrest of the pastor followed a petition by he management of the bank against Mrs Olotu who was their staff, adding that efforts was in top gear to arrest the fleeing suspect.

 

Pastor Olootu confessed to owning the the account but claimed that he wasn’t in the position to divert any money.

 

Olootu, who claimed to be an entrepreneur and publisher of a magazine, said he had not accessed his account in about three years.

 

He said, “When I was arrested about two years ago, some money came into my account and I went to access it, because when you’re alleged, you want to call your business manager and the accountant to know what was wrong.

“I haven’t been able to access the account but I am sure I can’t have such amount in my account, but there’s a statement before the police.

“I don’t have the details of the account, and I don’t know the account balance, I have never seen such money before. I’m worth such amount in cash.”

 

When asked if he receives alert on the account, Olotu said, “Those things will be distracting me because I have businesses, the accountant, which is my wife, receives the alert and I wasn’t aware of such deposit into my account.”

 

When asked to explain his wife running away, he said, “I believe my wife is a victim. She’s been used and she was never in the capacity to book or approve loans. She was a contract staff; she doesn’t have access to the system.

 

“I am feeling like she’s being victimised, she’s too afraid, she can’t handle this and I suspect she’s being victimised by the staff of the bank.

“For he past eight years, there is a particular boss who has been witch-hunting her all along. She is a performer, before she was sacked, she was performing over N400 million and the cabal at the back were doing not more than N15 million.”