Bishop, community leader jailed in Ekiti for forgery of church documents

At Ekiti State A High Court in Ado-Ekiti has sentenced a pastor, Adereti Ebenezer, and a community leader, Akinyede Joseph, to three years in prison each after convicting them of forgery, conspiracy and other offences.

The defendants were arraigned before a magistrate, Lekan Ogunmoye, on October 18, 2021 on four counts of conspiracy, forgery, perjury and making documents without authority.

According to the allegation, Akinyede Joseph (68) and Adereti Ebenezer (63) on January 10, 2016 at Ilado Street, Iwore, Ifaki Ekiti, conspired to falsify the minutes of a meeting of the Registered Board of Trustees of a church.

They are said to have falsely stated that they were appointed as members of the Registered Trustees of the United Church of Cherubim and Seraphim Organization, and changed the constitution of the Registered Trustees of the church without valid authority.

According to the prosecutor, the offense contravenes sections 516, 467, 191 and 473 of the Penal Code Cap C16, Vol.1, Laws of Ekiti State of Nigeria, 2012.

In a statement to the police, one of the trustees, Faseyi Albert, said, “I was appointed together with others as the Board of Trustees of the Church in 2001, the appointment was sent to the Corporate Affairs Commission for ratification.

“Following the death of the Primate and Archbishop of the Church, Most Rev. SA Fadeyi, the Bishop in-council consequently ratified the appointment of Rt. Rev. Tunde Ogunseemi as the new Primate/Archbishop of the organization in 2015.

“During the manual search conducted by the Corporate Affairs Commission, it was discovered that Rt. Reverend Adereti Ebenezer, who is the 3rd Archbishop of the church, and Chief Akinyede Joseph have falsified some documents which show that the trustees had a meeting and a decision was taken to remove Most of the names of Rev. .Tunde Ogunseemi. Minutes of the same meeting were made among others and given to the Corporate Affairs Commission and I was also accused of participating in the meeting. The matter was then reported to the police for investigation and action.

The prosecutor, Gbemiga Adaramola, called five witnesses and submitted a petition to the Corporate Affairs Commission.

Other tendered documents are the letter of appointment relief, extracts from the meeting, a letter from the General Secretary Conference to the Archbishop, and the statements of the defendants.

The defendants, who called four witnesses, spoke in their defense through their counsel, Ayotunde Ibitoye, who appealed to the court to uphold justice with mercy.

In his opinion on Friday, Mr. Ogunmoye said there was overwhelming evidence in court that the defendants conspired to forge the signatures of Board of Trustees members and minutes of Registered Board of Trustees meetings of the Cherubim Organization and the Seraphim Organization.

---

He said the offense of conspiracy had been proved beyond reasonable doubt against the defendants.

“In all, the only problem to determine is partially resolved for the prosecutor,” he said.

“Consequently, the defendants were sentenced to one year imprisonment on each of counts one, two and four with an option of a fine of N20,000, on each count.

“He was acquitted and acquitted on the third count (Making a false declaration). The sentence must be served concurrently,” the judge said.