The General Overseer, Gathsamen Prayer Ministry, Karfanchan, Kaduna State, Pastor Nelson Foni, 55, was on Friday arraigned at a Kafanchan Magistrates’ Court for giving fake prophesy and duping a congregant, Edith Emmanuel, of N1.7 million.
The cleric is facing a three-count charge of extortion, criminal breach of trust and cheating, punishable by the Kaduna State Penal Code Law, 2017.
Trouble began for Foni when he told a congregant at his church programme that he saw a vision that the daughter would study abroad.
it was gathered that upon arraignment, a state counsel, Alheri Daudu, narrated to the court how the congregant and her daughter attended a church programme organized by G.O. Foni in 2016 where he gave the prophecy with the intent to dupe the unsuspecting member of the church.
Foni, he said, “singled out the congregant’s daughter and declared that God revealed to him that she would study abroad and not in Nigeria.
“He consequently asked the congregant to invite her husband to the ministry, where he repeated the “revelation”.
The couple told Foni that they lacked the resources to fund overseas study, however, he advised that they should raise N1.7m which he would invest in crypto currency on their behalf and they obliged.
The cleric was said to have also told the couple that the return on investment in the crypto currency would be more than enough to cover for the daughter’s school fees and flight ticket.
However, each time the couple went to the Pastor to inquire about the return on investment, the cleric would browse on his laptop and declare that the investment had not matured.
Consequently, the matter was reported at the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Kafanchan which file a case in a Magistrate Court
When the charges were read to Pastor Foni, he pleaded not guilty.
Subsequently, his defence counsel, Amba Adze, applied for bail, to which the state counsel objected on the ground that if granted, the Pastor might defraud more unsuspecting individuals.
In his ruling, however, the Magistrate Michael Bawa granted the defendant bail in the sum of N1million and a surety in like sum.
Magistrate Bawa ruled that the surety must be a village head with at least N1 million deposit in his bank account and must produce the bank statement otherwise, Foni would be remanded at the Kafanchan Correctional Centre, pending the next hearing fixed for April 11, 2022.