The South South zonal office of Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) yesterday returned a some of N11,987.844.11 stolen from the account of a Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) branch in Port Harcourt to the church authority.
Handing over a draft of N10m and N1,987,844.11 respectively to the Pastor-in-charge of RCCG Province 5, Port Harcourt, Pastor Mike Barango, at the EFCC’s office in Port Harcourt, the zonal head of the commission, Mr Isahq Salihu said a staff of Access Bank who also doubled as an account officer to both RCCG Province 5 church and a private school in Port Harcourt defrauded the church by suppressing and diverting cheques and cash meant for the church to cover his shady deals in the private school.

 

He said the suspect who is also a member of the RCCG was covering up by giving fake Statements of Accounts to both the school and the church.
He said the suspect forged the letter heads of the church’s Region 5 and the signatures of the Pastor-in-charge of the Region.
Salihu said the suspect also forged the signature of the church’s accountant and attached same to the August 2017 salary schedule of the private school to the tune of N7,129,128.78 adding that the church denied giving instruction for the payment of the salary of the school.
He said the suspect engaged the services of a printer who is a member of the church to forge the church’s letterhead adding that the printer was paid a sum of N400,000 for the criminal business.
He said that investigation carried out by the Commission uncovered all the criminal movements of the fund of the church by the suspect adding that a total sum of N11,987,844.11 was found to have been stolen.
He said the money have been recovered and returned to the church.
He said the suspect committed similar fraud in the private school recently where a sum of N36,000,000 stolen from the school account were recovered and returned back to the school.
“I want to reiterate the commitments of the Acting Executive Chairman of EFCC, Mr Ibrahim Magu to continue clearance of our national space of corrupt practices”
“He has instructed me to return the money to the church as our own efforts in assisting it get back its stolen money. We are, therefore, pleased to present the sum of N11,987,844.11 to RCCG as money criminally stolen from its account by the suspect,” he said.
He added that the suspect is in custody awaiting prosecution and promised that EFCC will continue to do its utmost best to break the jinx of corrupt practices in the country.
Receiving the money, Pastor Barango commended EFCC for the good job done and called on Nigerians to support the Commission in its fight against corruption.