N15m scam rocks Chris Oyakhilome’s church
23 November, 2009 01:27:00 Reports



Another round of crisis is rocking Pastor Chris Oyakhilome’s Christ Embassy, as a former student of Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State, Victor Osagie, alias Jerry Finger, has admitted defrauding foreigners of $96,607( about N15million) and spending the proceeds on tithes and offerings in the church.

Osagie, a 23 -year old former Chemical Engineering student who dropped out of the university in 2004 due to what he called ‘family issues’, was picked up by operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Benin, following a petition by a regional compliance officer with Moneygram International, who suspected that the number of foreign ladies, mostly Americans and Germans, who have been sending money to the fraudster were victims of fraud.

A statement by EFCC’s head of publicity, Mr. Femi Babafemi, said the suspicion was triggered by a communication with one of the victims who told Moneygram that she met the fraudster over the internet and that she has been sending him money because he said he wanted to set up a business.

Investigations subsequently revealed that Osagie was a serial marriage scammer. Who fleeced his victims posing as Jerry Finger, a white British American expatriate working in Nigeria. Apart from sending photograph of a successful white male with the assumed Identity of a Jerry Finger to his victims and promising them marriage, he also told his victims that he was in Nigeria to execute a project and then demanded for money from them, with a promise to refund them when he was paid for the project. Some fell for the gimmick and paid.

Before he was finally nabbed, a total of $96,607.95 had been remitted to him by the victims. He collected the money through Moneygram desk in five different banks: United Bank for Africa Plc, Bank PHB, Spring Bank and Equitorial Trust Bank, using a fake driver’s licence with the name of Jerry Finger. Upon arrest, he confessed to the crime.

He said he started scamming in 2007, three years after he dropped out of the university. Before then he had worked as bar man in two hotels in Benin. He said he was forced to embrace internet fraud due to the pressure of fending for his family.

Investigations revealed that Osagie was so generous that Christ Embassy noticed and was concerned considering his age. But the fraudster explained that his income came from legitimate sources.

Curiously, he sees nothing wrong in defrauding people using his loot as offering and tithes.

He said he did not see anything untoward about his action, as money belongs to God and there was nothing wrong giving what he made from his fraudulent endeavours to promote the work of God.

He said he receives tremendous satisfaction knowing and seeing the people whose lives have been transformed through his giving. That for him was most edifying. He added that all those who gave him money did so willingly.

"They are all my friends. Up till now they are still my friends. If I call them now they will speak with me. I didn’t defraud any one. I only asked for assistance and they were willing to help, "he declared. He said the only action he took which he was not proud of was assuming the fake identity of a Jerry Finger.

The suspect, who was picked on October 23 has since been admitted to administrative bail, but will soon be charged to court.

Meanwhile, chairman of the EFCC, Mrs. Farida Waziri, has charged Nigerian youths to take up the gauntlet in the fight against corruption in the country. She made the call weekend when she received members of the National Youth Council of Nigeria (NYCN) in her office.

Waziri who was represented by Gabriel Aduda, head, strategy and re-orientation unit (SARU) said the youths should join the fight against corruption as the future belongs to them.

She said: "We are going to be working together to fight this scourge (corruption) that has eaten deep into the fabrics of our nation and has even begun to tamper with our national life because we have people dying from road accident because roads have not been built and money meant for that has been stolen. We have people dying from diseases that should have been cured because those drugs never got to the hospitals or they got to the hospitals and later disappeared. So whether we like it or not, directly or indirectly, we have been affected by corruption."

She said the fight against corruption was not for EFCC alone but for all Nigerians, adding that the need to create awareness on this, gave birth to the Anti-Corruption Revolution Campaign, ANCOR, an enlightenment campaign programme that is aimed at giving Nigerians the opportunity to ownership of the fight against corruption.

In his remarks, acting president of the National Youth Council of Nigeria, Deolu Sotade George, showered encomiums on Waziri and the Commission especially over the recent conviction of Chief Bode George by a Lagos High Court.

He said with the successful prosecution and conviction of Chief Bode George, former chairman of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Waziri has shown that she was determined to root out corruption from Nigeria.


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