•Obasanjo Photo: Sun News Publishing

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Confession of big faith as means of riding high today in church proprietorship may, afterall, not be the deterministic factor in the prosperity of the churches.
Reason is that a major scandal, which may well pass for scam in holy places, involving one of the high flying pentecostal churches has erupted.

The amount involved is a staggering N100 billion. And the flakes of the deal, like shrapnels from shattered glass are potent enough to cut a lot of gashes in the image of the church, patronised by of the movers and shakers of society, and with branches as many as sand by the Bar Beach.

The church which is said to be very dear to the heart of immediate past president, Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, is known to have been a major beneficiary of the excesses of the past administration and may have exploited its relationship with the ex-number one man to pick the largesse which came in form of two import waivers for 2006 and 2007.

Don’t be surprised that while manufacturers, hospitals and public schools are refused such waivers and get shut out from the incentives that would add value to society and the economy, the church picked it on a platter because of the high connections. And as it turned out, the waivers were not used to import exactly what the church claimed it was importing

N20b deal
A very valid and indisputable document obtained from a usually very reliable Presidency source indicated the the beneficiary church, one of the numerous by the Lagos/Ibadan highways who have created infamy for disrupting traffic flow and business activities in the nation at their functions, in 2006 got an import waiver of N9,831,109,309.00 through certificate number, BO/REV/12235/S.2/T.133 to import into Nigeria: construction materials; generators and vehicles. But the total value of the imports was N49,155,546,846.00.
In 2007, the same kindness, in fact, in equal measure was extended to the same church by the same source. Through a memo number: BO/R10260/V111/161, the church was granted the extraordinary favour to import building/construction materials valued at N48,988,454,876.00 with a total waiver of N9,757,690.975.20. The two waivers total N19,588,800,284,20, while the bulk transactions amount to N98,144,347,130.20. The funnier side of the deal that makes it look shady is the truth that the church imported the materials for its use in the construction of certain projects inclusive of a university by our source.
Our reliable source also hinted that another pet project of the church got about N10bn federal government or individual lifeline from a powerful presidential pocket sometime before the waivers began to pour in.

Mother of all deceit
Contrary to claim of importing building materials, however, Saturday Sun gathered that the said building materials were only a generic name used to bring in goods that should ordinarily have attracted huge tariffs.
Saturday Sun investigations revealed that some of the items purchased with the waiver include 300 cars - worth $6,923,000,
100 Jeeps (SUV) - worth $8,000,000, Video Equipment - worth $12,000,000.00, Plastic chair moulds - $769, Building materials, etc.
One of the imports was in the hefty sum of N48,788,456,076.00 or $386,412.600.00. On this transaction alone, the then President waived the payment of a princely sum of N9,757,690,975.20 revenue that would have accrued into the Federation account.
In the two years that the deal was sustained, the church, known for its owner’s pro-3rd term advocacy, short-changed the nation by N20 billion – the equivalent of about 2 years allocation to Nasarawa state.
As the Senator Udo Udoma probe committee into tax waivers and incentives continues, sources in the Presidency confided to Saturday Sun that even Nig. Customs officials were worried by the grant of the waivers in this connection because the items imported were “luxury goods, their quantities outrageously large and value astronomically high”.
Several churches are said to have benefited from duty waivers on donated goods such as medical equipment, educational materials and items for the needy.

Presidency connection
The church with a leadership that was somehow enmeshed in the support for former President Obasanjo’s third term project was so friendly with the ex-ruler, a relationship that was never a secret. Hence, it is suspected that the rosy relationship between the presidency and the church must have made possible that extraordinary advantage it enjoyed in the running of its business. It is however not too clear what extent of construction project the church is handling that justifies such building material and of course vehicles it supposedly imported with the waivers.