N25million Scam: EFCC arrests fraudulent pastor in Port Harcourt
A female Pastor in one of the new generation churches in Rivers State has been arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. She was nabbed for allegedy defrauding the family of one Maxwell Uzuoma of about N26million.
The female clergy, identified as Pastor Blessing of a popular Pentecostal Church, is alleged to have defrauded the family under the false pretence of being a business contractor but was arrested following a petition by the office of the Public Complaint in Rivers State. The Federal Commissioner, Public Complaints in Rivers state, Marshall Israel who confirmed the development to newsmen, said they decided to forward the petition from the affected family to the EFCC after their own investigation on the matter. Israel assured that the PCC would continue to work with relevant Government agencies in the fight against administrative injustice and other crimes for the interest of bringing a better society, just as he promised to ensure that justice prevailed in the case. He said, “The woman claimed to be a Pastor and defrauded the family of twenty-five million naira because they trusted her so much.
When the family brought the matter to us, even though it falls under the purview of PCC, we decided to transfer the petition to the anti-graft agency, EFCC and we are happy to announce to the public that the woman has been arrested. She is currently in the custody of the EFCC and she has made useful confessions.
The alleged victim of the fraud, Maxwell Uzuoma said Pastor collaborated with a fake prophet who came to them with fake prophecies in a bid to collect more money from the family. Few months back the woman, Pastor Blessing (Church name withheld) came up and defrauded my family through false pretence and collected huge amount of money to the tune of N25.5m. In fact, the strategy they used was come into my home and caused confusion by way of giving false prophecy in the name of showing care and concern. Then they get information, transfer it to other prophets and somehow, they will scam you. We started suspecting her and then after doing our own little investigation, we found out that she was fraudulent. That was when we decided to raise a petition to the PCC and here we are now. She is with the EFCC, he said.