by Dolapo Adelana

The Lagos Police Command have begun investigation into a man identified as Prophet Oladele of a church in Oke Ira, in the Ogba area of the state, The Punch reports.

According to officers at the Special Fraud Unit, Ikoyi, 45-year-old was arrested for allegedly defrauding a businesswoman of N70m, a duplex, two five-bedroomed bungalows, a Lexus and a Toyota Highlander, 2014 model.

It was gathered that the woman’s travails began in 2007 when she was informed by a medical doctor that her womb would have to be removed to heal her of fibroids.

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After rejecting the doctor’s advice, the woman sought an alternative solution which led to her meeting the prophet.

She had been suffering from the condition for 14 and was bleeding through her private part, according to reports.

On meeting the prophet she was given some concoctions after paying N98,000. The bleeding was said to have stopped.

The bleeding resurfaced two weeks after and she returned to the prophet.

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From that point, Oladele devised various gimmicks to extort money from the woman, including a claim that her husband was after her life and those of her three children.

A senior police officer at the SFU said, “The woman is from a prominent family in Lagos State and she is a businesswoman. She had fibroids for 14 years and was driven from pillars to posts, looking for healing. Eventually in 2007, she met a woman who introduced her to the prophet.

“The prophet told her that her husband was the cause of the heavy blood flowed. He said the husband wanted to kill her and that as long as the blood flows, the husband would continue to make more money. He said the husband had to be eliminated for her to live well. He also told her to bring her children – two females and a male – for spiritual cleansing, saying their lives were also in danger.

“He gave the children some concoctions. He lived in the woman’s house in Ogba with her children whenever the husband was not around. By this time, he had taken control of the woman and her children. At a point, he told the woman to build a five-bedroomed duplex for him at Ijoko (Ogun State), which she did within three months. She also purchased a Toyota Highlander, 2014 model, and a Lexus GX470, 2013 model, for him.”

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Few years down the line, the woman’s son ran mad after taking some herb from the prophet. It was learnt that Oladele took the boy to his town in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, where he was healed.

“He told the woman that she must build two five bed-roomed bungalows for him in Ado Ekiti so that her son’s madness would not return. After she built the houses, he told the woman to stop having sex with her husband if she wanted to live long.

“The woman made several transfers into his three bank accounts. We have been able to get records of the transfers to one of his banks which ran into over N70m,” the source added.

Oladele met his waterloo when one of the woman’s children, a lawyer, concluded that the family was being defrauded after he allegedly collected another millions of naira from her for spiritual cleansing.

Another investigator at the SFU said, “The lawyer informed their father and the case was reported to the police. The prophet was arrested in Ado Ekiti, where he had gone to obtain a chieftaincy title.”

An official of the SFU, SP Ngozi Braide, who spoke on the incident on behalf of the unit’s Commissioner of Police, Ibrahim Lamorde, said the suspect confessed to the fraud.

She said, “We have been able to trace about N70m to his bank account. In his statement, he said he healed the woman of the fibroids.”

In the prophet’s statement to the police, he said the houses and the two vehicles were gifts the woman gave him. He said he did not use charms on her and her children.

Oladele said he gave some money to the woman that introduced the victim to her.

Braide said the police had launched a manhunt for the accomplice, adding that the prophet had been granted administrative bail and would be charged to court after the completion of investigation.

“We urge members of the public to be wary of people who devise various means of defrauding them of their hard-earned money. Be careful about the kind of people you seek help from,” Braide added.