General overseer accused of N1.3bn fraud denies EFCC arrest
The General Overseer of Faith on the Rock Ministry International, Theophilus Ebonyi, said to have been arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over allegations of N1.3bn fraud has denied the arrest.
The pastor, in a short video shared on his Facebook page on Monday minutes after the news of his alleged arrest broke, described his arrest as “rumour” and “false” circulated by bloggers.
The EFCC had earlier shared the news of the pastor’s arrest along with his mugshot on its verified X handle, @officialEFCC, on Monday.
The anti-graft agency had explained that the general overseer was nabbed for allegedly defrauding church members and others through fake grants from the Ford Foundation to the tune of N1,319,040,274.31.
The statement partly read, “Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, have arrested the General Overseer of Faith on The Rock Ministry International, Apostle Theophilus Oloche Ebonyi, for defrauding church members and other Nigerians using fake grants from the Ford Foundation to the tune of N1,319,040,274.31.
“Ebonyi was arrested for defrauding his victims, comprising non-governmental organisations, NGOs, and individuals, by advertising an intervention project through his NGO (Theobarth Global Foundation), claiming that the Ford Foundation was offering a grant of $20,000,000.
“He allegedly beguiled his victims to subscribe as beneficiaries of the phony grant by asking them to pay for registration forms and clusters. Each subscriber was made to pay N1,800,000. Through this arrangement, Ebonyi allegedly raked in N1,391,040,274.31.
