Court orders forfeiture of hotel, school, event centre, other fraud proceeds traced to pastor

The Federal High Court in Lafia, Nasarawa State, has ordered the final forfeiture of a slew of landed properties located in parts of Nasarawa State bordering the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, to the federal government.

The judge, M.O. Olajuwon, ordered the forfeiture, saying the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCc) proved the properties seized from Theophilus Ebonyi, the General Overseer of Faith On The Rock Ministry International, to be proceeds of crime.

EFCC, which arrested Mr Ebonyi in 2023 and subsequently instituted the forfeiture proceedings targeting the alleged proceeds of fraud, said in a statement on Thursday that the court issued the order of permanent forfeiture in a ruling on Wednesday.

According to EFCC, the properties include a 23-room hotel and event centre known as De Thinkers Home and Apartments located at New Layout, Abattoir Road First Gate, Nyanya Gwandara, Nasarawa State.

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They also include a warehouse and sachet water factory and dispenser located at No. 20 Philip Doda Street, Koroduma, Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State; two office buildings, located at Philip Doda Street, before Chapel of Redemption Church, One-man Village, Koroduma, Karu, Nasarawa State.

The rest are Theo International Academy Primary School, situated at Second Gate, Balogun Street, beside Football Field, Nyanya Gwandara, and the sum of N1,005,489.27, which was found in Mr Ebonyi’s bank account domiciled in First Bank.fv

The judge said EFCC satisfied the requirements of Section 17(1) of the Advanced Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act to warrant the issuance of an order for the final forfeiture of the assets.

EFCC said its investigations showed that the account of the second respondent in the forfeiture case, Theobarth Global Foundation, was used to launder money and receive funds from victims of a Ponzi scheme.

After reviewing the evidence presented by the EFCC, the judge ruled that Mr Ebonyi failed to “show cause as to why the assets should not be permanently forfeited to the federal government.”

How the pastor defrauded victims

In 2023, the EFCC arrested Mr Ebonyi for allegedly defrauding victims, including individuals and organisations, of over N1.3billion.

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He reportedly lured his victims through the advertisement that the Ford Foundation was purportedly providing a grant of $20 billion to aid the poor.

EFCC said he carried out the publicity through Theobarth Global Foundation.

He allegedly hoodwinked his victims to subscribe as beneficiaries of the phony grant by asking them to pay for registration forms and clusters.

EFCC said each subscriber was made to pay N1.8 million. Through the scheme, EFCC said, Mr Ebonyi allegedly raked in N1.39 billion from unsuspecting individuals and non-governmental organisations.

EFCC said its investigations also showed that Ford Foundation had no arrangement, grant, relationship or business with Mr Ebonyi. The Foundation pointedly disclaimed him and his NGO stressing that it had no link whatsoever with them.