RCCG faces being dragged to court by its members who were defrauded in an Abuja property scheme

LEADERS of one of Nigeria's largest pentecostal churches the Christian Church of God (RCCG) face being dragged to court by their members over fraudulent dealings in a property purchase programme that involved many parishioners being fleeced off.

Land and other properties in Abuja are the costliest in the country and many RCCG members hoped that a scheme introduced by the church would assist them. Many workers, desirous of owning properties in the city or surrounding neighbourhoods, often take part in housing schemes which allow them to make payments in instalments over a period of time.

Oluyemi Ojudu, a civil servant, registered for a housing scheme initiated by an RCCG parish in Abuja and thought it was the beginning of the end of paying exorbitant rent to landlords but he came unstuck. In 2009, the Excellent Men Fellowship (EMF), a group in the Resurrection Chapel Parish of the RCCG, Lugbe, Abuja where Mr Ojudu lived, announced it was starting its own property acquisition scheme for married men in the church.

At the time, the scheme was thrown open to members of the RCCG from other parishes as long as they are given letters of introduction from their pastors. Ordinarily, Mr. Ojudu who worshipped at another RCCG parish in the Gwarimpa area of Abuja, would have hesitated before subscribing to such property scheme due to the frequency at which people were being duped but this was one his church was organising, so he signed up.

This scheme was a sweet deal involving a 600-square metre plot of land valued at N1.5m. Each subscriber was expected to pay an initial deposit of N250,000 while the remaining payment was spread over two years and subscribers who pay up to N900,000 would have their plot allotted to them.

Apart from the N1.5m for the land, beneficiaries were also expected to pay an additional N500,000 for infrastructural development in the estate after they might have started developing the plot allotted to them. Mr Ojudu said he made a contribution of N1,000,000 and was given a subscriber file with number 0744 but seven years after he made the payment, he is yet to get his plot of land from the promoters of the scheme.

Beneficiaries were told to pay the initial N250,000 deposit into a RCCG account with the defunct, Oceanic Bank, now owned by Ecobank. A committee headed by the parish’s presiding pastor, Bisi Akande, was tasked with making sure the scheme ran smoothly.

Other members of the committee according to investigations were Mr Akande’s deputy Adeola Johnson, lawyer Sunday Adeagbo, EMF president Olufemi Sobola, accountant, Cosmas Mbanu and estate surveyor Victor Ayeye. The committee came up with a plan to purchase hectares of land in Pyakassa, a village on the outskirts of Abuja, and in Von Estate, Lugbe which was to be distributed into 600sqm plots to beneficiaries.

However, before the land was purchased, Mr Akande was transferred to another parish and a new presiding pastor, Peter Imonhiosen, took over from him. However, before the land was shared among the subscribers of the scheme, Mr Imonhiosen was himself transferred to another parish.

Subscribers to the scheme said the first whiff of trouble was when Mr Imonhiosen left but failed to hand over the management of the scheme to his successor. They became suspicious when they noticed that the committee’s meetings had been moved from the church’s premises in Lugbe to the Pyakassa site of the scheme.

After they realised that the facade of advertising the scheme as church-owned had fallen off, Messrs Sobola, Adeola, Adeagbo and Imonhiosen promptly registered the scheme with the Corporate Affairs Commission as Redeemer Excellent Men Housing Foundation without informing subscribers who had been led to believe it was initiated and managed by the church. Later, committee started modifying and reviewing the original terms of the scheme such as asking subscribers to make additional payments.

Original letters given to subscribers were revoked and new ones issued increasing the initial deposit subscribers are expected to make from N250,000 to N500,000. Furthermore, subscribers were given 21 days to complete the payment or forfeit their chances of being allotted a plot of land and in the new letters, the size of the plot of land was reduced from 600sqm to 500sqm.