Lightening they say doesn’t strike twice in a particular place.
However, for some people including the General Overseer of Grace Nation Church International, Pastor Chris Okafor, it does.
As you read, a drama is unfolding between Pastor Okafor and a former member of the church identified as Michael Omolayo Ibukun.
According to report, the duo are daggers drawn over a petition written to the police by Ibukun alleging that he was recently defrauded by the church.
The petitioner, a former member of the church’s protocol team, alleged that two cars were forcibly taken from him and sold to unknown persons.
In his petition to the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Ibukun also alleged that the Grace Nation Church refused to pay the N50million it owed him for the diesel his company, Blessed Energy Resources Limited, supplied to the church some months ago.
Also included in the petition by the petitioner was a request that the cars taken from him by the church be recovered while the monies owed him from the diesel sale be paid in full.
The police swung into action and invited Dr Okafor who honoured the invite visiting the office of the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Adegoke Fayoade.
In a statement released on Saturday, June 29, 2024, the church said it had no case to answer.
Spokesman of the church, Henry Okoduwa, said: “There cannot be anything farther from the truth. For the records, the said cars were willingly given as an offering to God by Ibukun who, joyous and in an expansive mood for the blessings he received from God, decided to drop the car keys on the altar after giving a testimony during one of the church’s services that was broadcast live about three years ago.
“Ibukun had particularly been enamoured by the fact that God broke the jinx of no male children in his lineage when his wife conceived and bore him a son following the prayers of Dr Chris Okafor, the church’s head pastor.
“That is why we find it particularly strange that the same person who willingly gave his cars with the original documents attached would turn around a few years later to demand that they be given back.
“The church is also scandalised to hear him allege that he was being owed N50 million for the diesel fuel he supplied it when in actual fact he was paid all the monies owed him for the few times he transacted business with the church.
“It therefore does not need high intelligence for anyone to fault Ibukun’s debt story because it’s illogical for him to have recently gone to Dr Chris Okafor, the church’s patriarch to make a request of a N10million loan when all he needed to have done was demand that part of what was being owed be paid.
“He had asked for a loan which he said he wanted to re-inject into his business, and despite being unable to offer the assistance because of the enormous resources that had been sunk into the rebuilding and expansion project the church undertook in 2023, God’s servant, Dr Okafor still sought for a way out by referring him to his bank.
“That the bank could not help at the end was not because the man of God did not want to. Mr Ibukun failed to convince the bank that he would be able to repay the loan. They said he was not credit-worthy.
“The church authorities also faulted Ibukun in the area of offerings and tithes giving, saying that it does not compel people to give.
“Thankfully, we run live telecast of all our programmes/services and our mantra is to always allow people to give what they can afford at any given time. The church does not monetise its services or the blessings derived therefrom, nor does it compel people to give what they are not led to give.
“Since we abhor the practice of making altar calls in which members or visitors are asked to drop their cars and landed properties, it is sheer contradiction to imagine that Ibukun was asked to.
“Ibukun who is presently on the run for defrauding two of the church’s members of the combined sum of N11 million recently do not appear to us as someone who is qualified to cast aspersions at an organisation as ours that is Godly, honest and law-abiding.
“More than anything else, Ibukun has proved, with his latest fraudulent activities, that he does not deserve the sympathy he has desperately sought from the public with his tissue of lies and deliberate falsehood.
“This is why it will be in the interest of those who might be tempted to be hoodwinked by his story and join him in his current campaign of calumny against the church to desist.”
Pastor Okafor’s church is known for several controversies. Earlier in the year, multiple platforms including Gistlover and Legit reported that a Nollywood actress, Doris Ogala alleged Pastor Chris Okafor of threatening and blackmailing her over N25 million unpaid debt.
Then, the movie star shared an account on Instagram about the theft of N25 million by the Mountain of Liberation and Miracle Ministry pastor.
The woman claimed that N35 million of her hard-earned money was given to the pastor for her.
He then informed her that he had only gotten N15 million from the person, following which he handed her N10 million and kept the remaining N5 million.
She said that she assumed the man in question still owed her money, not knowing that the Pastor had received the whole amount.
Ogala said that Pastor Okafor blackmailed and threatened her when she asked for her money because he is a self-proclaimed man of God.
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