The
pastor who is now cooling off at the State Criminal Investigation Department at
Asaba was arrested by the police in Agbor when he went to lodge a formal report
over his involvement in the illegal transfer of a bank customer?s money into
his (pastor?s) account by one of the staff of one of the generation banks who
is currently at large.
According
to Ika Weekly source; the pastor, who is currently battling to exonerate
himself from the scandalous development, said one of the members of the church
where he pastors phoned him one day, requesting that he gives him (member) the
number of his bank account, that he (member) wants to use to receive money
being sent by one of his relations based abroad, who is building a house at
Agbor. Having known the young man who was a senior usher in the church, the
pastor readily obliged him the request. And the money (N500.000) Five Hundred Thousand Naira was later paid into the
pastor?s account, which he withdrew and handed over to the member?s wife, on
his instruction.
It
was some few days later, according to our source that the pastor received a
phone call from the young man, who informed him that he had used him to defraud
a customer of the bank where he worked. And advised him to immediately leave
town, as himself and his wife and two children had long left Agbor.
The
man of God who was said to be dumfounded and confused about what he just heard
raced straight to the Divisional Police Headquarters at Agbor, where he
narrated his story. After lodging a formal report, he was promptly arrested by
the police.
A
visit to the Divisional Police Headquarters Agbor by our reporter confirmed the
story as being true, as a competent police source informed our reporter that
the matter has been transferred to the State CID, Asaba where police detectives
are currently investigating, with a view to charging the matter to court. The
police source further disclosed that until the bank staff who allegedly
perpetrated the act is apprehended, the pastor remains the prime suspect.
A
member of the church, who spoke to Ika Weekly on strict condition of anonymity,
confirmed the story, saying that the pastor did what he did because he never
knew that the story about his (member) relation building a house and his not
wanting such a huge amount paid into his account, as a bank staff was all a ruse. He lamented that the pastor
is now going through the painful ordeal because he never envisaged that the
young man who was very committed to church activities, could get himself
involved in fraudulent activities to the extent that he did not think twice
before engaging the pastor in the fraudulent and scandalous act.
As
at the time of filing this report, the where about of the young man and his
family was still unknown, as the police continue with their investigations.
In
recent times, there have been numerous reports in some National dialers of
money disappearing from customer?s account especially through the Automated
Teller Machine ATM. There has been growing suspicions that most of the
withdrawals is are being carried out with the active collaboration of some
unscrupulous insiders, who divest customers of their hard earned money.
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