Enugu Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has secured the conviction and sentence of one Godwin Sunday Ajuluchukwucheya (a.k.a Prophet Sunday Koboko) before Justice H. O. Eya of the Enugu State High Court, sitting in Independence Layout.
The convict was prosecuted on a two-count charge bordering on obtaining by false pretence and stealing to the tune of N136, 436, 000. 00 (One Hundred and Thirty-six Million, Four Hundred and Thirty-six Thousand Naira).
Count one of the charges read: “Godwin Sunday Ajuluchukwucheya, sometimes between 2023 to February 2025 in Enugu, Enugu State within the jurisdiction of the Enugu State High Court with intent to defraud, obtained the sum of N136, 436, 000. 00 (One Hundred and Thirty-six Million, Four Hundred and Thirty-six Thousand Naira) from unsuspecting members of your church under the false pretence that you have won N30, 000, 000, 000. 00 (Thirty Billion Naira) in Baba Ijebu lotto game and that investors in your investment scheme will receive dividends according to their investments, which pretence you knew to be false and you thereby committed an offence”.
The offence is contrary to Section 1 (1) (a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006 and punishable under Section 1 (3) of the same Act.
Ajuluchukwucheya pleaded guilty to the charges when they were read to him. In view of his plea, counsel to the EFCC, Assistant Commander of the EFCC, ACE II Rotimi Ajobiewe prayed the court to convict and sentence him accordingly.
Justice Eya thereafter convicted and sentenced him to one-year imprisonment with an option of N500, 000. 00 fine. The court also ordered that “the convict’s landed property covered by Customary Certificate of Occupancy, dated 25th July 1989, registered as No. 92 at page 92 in Volume 512 of the Land Registry, Enugu, shall be forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria, through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and shall be sold and the proceeds used as restitution of the victims of the offence”.
The Commission received a petition from one Mrs Ngene Nkiruka Jane who alleged that the convict presented himself as a true man of God and lured her into believing that he had the power to raise her late husband from death. She alleged that she was also lured into paying for a fraudulent scheme where members will benefit according to their investments and the total money for the scheme and the resurrection of her late husband was N6, 700, 000. 00 (Six Million, Seven Hundred Thousand Naira).
Another petitioner, Okey Uwakwe alleged that the convict convinced him that he was capable of controlling his brother who travelled outside the country since 1997 to return back and lured him into paying the sum of N6, 231, 400. 00 for spiritual work.
During investigations, members of the convict’s ministry started flooding the Directorate with claims of how they were defrauded by the convict. It was also discovered that his modus operandi was luring members of his ministry into buying his “products” for prosperity which include; “miracle sticker”, “spiritual dragon” “holyghost thunder” and others.
