Romanus Okoye
Popular televangelist and the head Genesis Parish of the Celestial Church of Christ, Alagbado, Lagos, Isreal Ogundipe, has been sentenced to two years imprisonment by Lagos State High Court, Ikeja for unlawfully converting a woman’s property.
Ogundipe, who has been on trial since 2011, was charged with seven-counts of obtaining by stealing, inducing delivery of money by false pretenses, unlawful conversion of property and forgery.
Delivering the judgement in the matter yesterday, Justice Olabisi Akinlade found Ogundipe guilty of two out of the seven count charges brought against him by the state and sentenced him to one year imprisonment on each of the counts. He would however spend one year in prison as the sentence will run concurrently.
The court found the prophet not guilty of five-counts of stealing, inducing delivery of money by false pretenses, giving false information to a public officer forgery.
Justice Akinlade ordered the convict to make restitution of N11million to the complainant, a London-based architect, Mrs. Oladele Williams-Oni on counts two and four.
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Lead prosecuting counsel, Mrs. Rotimi Odutola, thanked the court for ”a well-considered judgment.”
According to the prosecution, Ogundipe committed the offences between August 30, 2002 and 2005. He was alleged to have fraudulently obtained N14million and £12,000 in several tranches from the complainant.
The convict was also said to have between August 30, 2002 and December 2003, at No. 32, Bello St., Ladipo Estate, Shogunle, Lagos allegedly collected N2.9million from Williams-Oni to purchase an uncompleted building for her but fraudulently converted the money to his own use.
The prosecution said that between March and December 2003 at Commint Bereau De Change, Broad Street, Lagos, the convict allegedly stole 12,000 British pounds from the complainant which was meant for the purchase of four plots of land for building a mosque.
He is alleged to have stolen N8.5million between October 2002 and March 2003 from Williams-Oni for the purchase of landed properties in Lagos,” Odutola said.