Fake architect swindles church members over Redeem camp dormitory projects

A man pretending to help the Redeemed Christian Church of God with its project to build more hostels for worshipers during programmes was arrested recently for tricking many people into paying money into his own bank account.

Opeyemi Oluwole was said to have falsely collected money ranging between N250, 000 and N2.5m from victims before the Lagos State Police Command arrested him following a tip off from a suspicious church member.

According to reports, the General Overseer of the RCCG, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, had announced during the church’s December Holy Ghost Service titled ‘Signs and Wonders’ that the church had a challenge of accommodation.

“The dormitories we have are many but are not enough for the number of people that attend our programmes so we need people to join us in building extra 2,000 dormitories in order to reduce the number of people sleeping on bare floor in the church auditorium.

“The dormitories, we are hoping, would be ready before the next congress and anyone willing to help should get across to us,” Adeboye had said.

The whistle blower said Oluwole had gone around telling people that the RCCG had contracted him to build the hostels.

“Oluwole approached me, saying he had been given the mandate to build the dormitories and that some companies had bid for the contract. He said some of the companies that won were not financially capable of constructing the dormitories so he was sub-contracting it.

“He said we would handle the contracts but would have to use the names of the companies that originally won the bid and we would get our money afterwards. He gave us his bank account number and told us to pay N250, 000 as the initial fee for registration.

“However, I contacted the Project department of the RCCG and they said they did not give Oluwole any contract. They even checked past records and his name did not appear in the files.