Redeemed Church Pastor Defrauds Movie Marketer N16 Million

It is written in the scriptures that it is not all that call the name of God that will be saved. This much can be said about a pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Olayinka David Sanni of Mount Olive Parish, Province 05, Area 11, who because of his ambition to hold a political post, delved into things not considered godly. His status as a pastor must have played an important role in his estate agency job under the Olayinka Sanni & Co, whose office is at Plot 239, 21 Road, Gowon Estate, Egbeda, Lagos, and the trust reposed on him by Mr. Adefemi Odunuga, the owner of Gemini Films and Records, one of the leading marketers in the Yoruba movie industry. It happened that the pastor facilitated a deal between the marketer and the family of Late Adeyinka Akinyemi over a piece of land somewhere around Agege area of Lagos State and the family asked the marketer to pay the amount due in the pastor’s name, after which the pastor absconded with the money. The pastor who contested to become the chairman of Mosan/Okunola Local Council Development Area under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the last chairmanship election in the state but lost out, our source revealed, collected the sum of N16 million from the marketer on behalf of the family but failed to remit the collected amount and instead invested the money in his political ambition. This we gathered prompted the family to order their architect to begin demolition exercise on the property believing that Mr. Odunuga had lost interest in the property as they thought no payment was made and nothing heard from the pastor. It dawned on the family that something was fishy when the marketer brought policemen from the Force CID, Panti, to arrest the architect who was working on the land and he was detained before he was granted bail. It was at the police station that the family confronted the movie marketer with the fact that they had not received any payment from him regarding the land. The marketer suspecting they might be playing a fast one on him charged both the family and their architect to court where he presented documents invested the ownership of the property on him. It was during the court session that it was discovered that the pastor was actually a fraudster, and he was later joined in the suit No: ID: 127/2012 because of his role in the case and a writ of summons has since been sent to him. In a document in the court made available to Global News, it was clearly stated that there was indeed a transaction between Pastor Yinka Sanni and the movie marketer, though all efforts to get the reaction of the marketer proved abortive as he decided not to speak with our reporter for reasons best known to him. The pastor, we learnt has since been running from pillar to post apparently to raise some money for refunds in order to reduce the damage the whole incident will have on him or to evade those he had defrauded through the land issue. He is just one of the RCCG pastors who will be involved in similar act. Another Redeemed pastor, Kunle Odeyemi David, had earlier been was arrested in July, 2010 by the Lagos State Police Command for fraudulently withdrawing N8 million from the bank account of a Lagos-based hotelier, Alhaji Mudashiru Olarenwaju Odetunde, the owner of Moonshine Hotel. Another is Senior Pastor Oriola Olasunkanmi a staff of Pacific Bank, one of the banks that morphed into the present Unity Bank. Owing to his supposed religious inclination Pastor Olasunkanmi was asked to head two companies the bank management decided to fraudulently float, Africa Pillar Limited and Bojan Ventures, which would trade in stocks, and they made him the sole signatory to the two companies’ accounts, which he accepted knowing fully well that it was against the law not minding that he was a pastor. The companies were avenues for the bank management and the pastor to siphon millions of depositors’ funds. At the last count N800 million was given to the supposed man of God through the two companies to trade in stocks and he was said to have successfully converted it to his own. The activities of pastors from the church are not doing the image of the gentle man of God any good, with this one adding to the already long queue of RCCG clergies who have defrauded innocent Nigerians. In a similar vein, Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, the general overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God has hinted that henceforth would-be pastors should be employed before they can be ordained in the church. This was made known recently by the man of God during a Sunday service. The reason given by Baba, as he is fondly called, is that most of the area pastors of the church do nothing aside being pastors, a thing he claims gives them the avenue to embezzle church funds as well as defraud innocent church members and outsiders. He further said parishes that are not capable to finance themselves should rather team up with other parishes instead of trying to set up more parishes at all costs, owing to checkmate cases where some parishes conduct their activities in environments that are not conducive enough. A member of the church who spoke to us on anonymity revealed that some top pastors of the church that are tasked with monitoring parishes set up are not being just, citing an example of a new parish that was set up and services were held under a canopy, but in the monitoring pastors’ report, the parish had a structure where it conducts service. He claimed that those sent on monitoring mission might have compromised when they accepted cash and fuel money. It was recently reported during Pastor Adeboye’s 70th birthday celebration that some pastors abroad met with the man of God in his international office at Redemption Camp asking him to resign for a younger pastor, but Adeboye wasted no time to reply them that he was not voted nor nominated as the general overseer of the church which happens to be one of the largest congregation in Africa, rather he was called by God. Some pastors where on Baba’s defence saying those pastors who asked Adeboye to resign were ambitious, instead of praying to God to grant the man of God long life, good health and strength to continue the good work he’s doing for the Lord. Daddy G.O also said the position of the general overseer of the church was not for the highest bidder or the most erudite pastor; rather it is God who will appoint the most qualified pastor when it is time. He further gave his faithfuls a pundit stinker when he told them in one of the services that his successor is still drinking and doing ungodly things,  that is, that the person is yet to give his life to Christ or he is still a baby in the Christendum.