The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arrested a
Bishop and suspected fraudster, Giniko Obi, in Benin City, for allegedly
defrauding thousands of people of various sums of money running into millions
of naira.
The suspect allegedly collected the mone
y from his victims in the guise of helping them to ‘fight poverty.’
Obi, founder of Beloved Gideon Foundation, based in Agbor,
Delta State, with outreaches in Bayelsa, Onitsha, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Abuja,
and Benin City, however, denied any involvement in fraud claiming that he was
only “doing the will of God by trying to help the people fight poverty.”
According to a statement by the acting EFCC spokesman, Tony
Orilade, in Abuja on Monday, Obi said it was his desire and God’s will to see
people prosper that led him into operating what appears to be a Ponzi scheme.
Obi, who claimed to be a consecrated Bishop with a diploma
in theology explained that he was selling what he called nuggets for successful
living to subscribers to the scheme.
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 and 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.”
According to him, when he left Agbor for Lagos, his desire
was to expand his subscription base but his subscribers were impatient.
“If they had allowed me to hold the conference in Lagos, I
would have paid them,” he claimed.
However, some of his victims who thronged the EFCC office
since his arrest, described him as a fraudster, claiming he defrauded them.
A victim, Janet Okafor reportedly told the EFCC that Obi
claimed to be a representative of Gideons International, an organisation that
distributes Bibles and Christian literature.
She said, “He organised seminars in Agbor market and claimed
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 literature, 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 said she
fell for his tricks because “the Bishop swore with the Bible.”
“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,” the victim was quoted as saying.
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