Pastor Micheal Ogundepo, a 39-year-old pastor, was detained by the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in Ondo State for allegedly engaging in fraud.
Ogundepo is accused of defrauding a woman named Miss Fagbuyiro Ajetomobi of N1.6 million.
In a statement released in Akure, the state’s capital city, Daniel Aidamenbor, the NSCDC’s spokesman, confirmed the suspect’s detention.
According to Aidemenbor, the pastor allegedly took Miss Ajetomobi’s passport and used her money for personal expenses, preventing her from being able to file for a new visa.
“Michael Ogundepo, 39, a pastor at No. 15 Ewu Agbo Street in Ikorodu, Lagos, was detained for defrauding Miss Fagbuyiro Ajetomobi Yemi of No. 110 Osi Igoba in Akure of one million, six hundred and seventy thousand naira (#1,670,000) only under the guise of assisting her in obtaining a visa.
The suspect was sent multiple invitations by the command, but he turned them down. He pretended to be abroad and pretended to be calling from an international number when he called the complainant.
“The suspect was arrested, when he was invited to collect the sum of N3,000,000 for a visa job, without him knowing it was a bait,” the man claimed.
According to Aidamenbor, the corps’ investigation revealed that the suspect had conned a number of additional gullible customers.
He stated that the pastor’s offense violated and was penalized by Section 419 of the Ondo State Criminal Code Law, Cap. 37, Vol. 1 of 2006.