A 43-year-old pastor, Uchenna Okafor, was on Friday brought before a Makurdi Chief Magistrates’ Court for allegedly defrauding a church member N1.7 million.
Okafor is facing a two-count charge of criminal breach of trust and misappropriation, punishable under Sections 310 and 313 of the Penal Code, Laws of Benue.
Police Prosecutor, Godwin Ato told the court that a petition was received on August 1 by the State Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Makurdi, written by the complainant, Mr Peter Irokwende dated July 28, 2017 and addressed to the Police Commissioner.
According to him, the complainant sold his plot of land to one Uchenna Iroegbu for N1.7 million and Iroegbu collected his wife’s pastor’s account number bearing the name of Pastor Uchenna Livinus Okafor to pay the money into.
He gave the pastor’s account details to the buyer of the land, who paid the N1.7 million into the account. “But the pastor converted the money to his own use.”
The pastor however pleaded not guilty.
The Chief Magistrate, Mr Isaac Ajim, in his ruling, granted bail to the accused in the sum of N50,000 with a surety in the same amount and adjourned the case till September 13.