Bishop defrauds 30,000 worshippers in God’s name

Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has apprehended the founder of Beloved Gideon Foundation, Bishop Giniko Obi, for allegedly defrauding 30,000 worshippers. Beloved Gideon Foundation is based in Agbor, Delta State, but has outreaches in Bayelsa, Onitsha, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja and Benin.

Obi was arrested by the Benin Zonal Office of the EFCC for allegedly defrauding thousands of people of various sums of money running into millions of naira, under the guise of helping them “fight poverty.”

However, Obi has denied any involvement in the fraud, claiming that he was only, “doing the will of God by trying to help the people fight poverty.”

According to him, it was his desire and God’s will to see people prosper, which led him into operating what appears to be a Ponzi scheme. Obi claimed to be a consecrated bishop, possessing a diploma in theology. He said: “We write books such as ‘24 Nuggets for Successful Living,’ ‘36 Nuggets for Successful Living,’ ‘48 Nuggets for Successful Living.’

We organise seminars and conferences on how to be successful. We tell the people to subscribe to these publications.

If you subscribe with N10,800, we give you N15,000. If you subscribe with N18,000, we give you N23,000. I had about 30,000 subscribers and I was paying them.” However, some of his victims who have continued to throng the EFCC office, since his arrest, described him as a “fraud.”

One of them, Janet Amaka Okafor, said the bishop sold a dummy to them by claiming that he was from the famous Gideons International, based in the United States.

She said: “He organised seminars in Agbor market that he was from Gideons International and that their mission was to help eradicate poverty in Nigeria. He told us that unlike in the past when Gideons International distributed Bibles and Christian literatures, their mission now was to eradicate poverty.”

On how she became a victim of the scheme, Okafor (35), who claimed she had never participated in any Ponzi scheme in the past, disclosed that she fell for Obi’s tricks because the “bishop” swore with the Bible.

She added: “The bishop knelt down and swore with the Bible. He convinced us that he was from Texas, USA and we believed him. I subscribed with N10,800 and he paid me N15,000. It was after this that he engaged over 60 of us as canvassers. I brought many people including my relations and friends.

All together, they invested over N5 million.” Another victim, Bessie Nwadibire (67), said the bishop was very deceptive from the beginning. Nwadibire said that she had been praying and hoping that the bishop would be made to refund her money.

She added: “When he came to the market he gave drinks, and also gave some people money; as much as N50,000, saying the poverty rate in Nigeria was too high.” Nwadibire expressed gratitude that the EFCC has arrested the bishop. She said: “Before he was arrested, we went into hiding, because all the people who invested their money into the business through me threatened to kill me unless I refund their money. The money is over N8,000,000.”

Another victim, Wisdom Aderemor, a civil servant based in Agbor, who said she had to flee her home for fear of being attacked, described Obi as “callous and evil”.

Obi explained that when he left Agbor for Lagos, his desire was to expand his subscription base, but his subscribers were impatient. He said: “If they allow me to hold the conference in Lagos, I would have paid them.” EFCC said Obi would soon be arraigned.