The lead pastor of the Harvesters International Christian Centre (HICC), Bolaji Idowu, on Wednesday, reacted to the allegations of his involvement in a N1.5bn real estate fraud.
The pastor, on Wednesday morning, addressed the allegations while leading the church’s ‘Next-Level Prayer Conference’ held daily.
The cleric was alleged to have been summoned for interrogation by the Force Criminal Investigative Department (FCID) on Tuesday over the alleged real estate scheme and money laundering.
The FCID allegedly grilled the pastor following petitions by some of the victims of the alleged fraud. However, the pastor said all the allegations were false.
He said, “Over the last 24 hours, there has been a lot of news about me on social media. I just want to state some facts clearly. I heard that I was involved in real estate fraud. Number one, I do not have, and anyone that has contrary views can produce it, any property in Nigeria.
“The only property I have in Nigeria was the one my family bequeathed to me. There is no property that I have in Nigeria. Secondly, I do not sell or buy properties. I’m not in the business of buying and selling properties.
“Someone said, I received billions into my account. My accounts are public, you can go and check if I ever received billions into my account because I did not. There are just a lot of things going on in the press, but this is not the forum to address it.”
The pastor, however, did not state whether or not he was arrested as reported in the media.
According to reports, Pastor Idowu was released from police custody after interventions from prominent clerics.
While the police are yet to address the situation, mixed reactions have trailed the reports of the pastor’s arrest on social media.
An X user @SandraAdaeze4 said: ”People are surprised that Pastor Bolaji got arrested for fraud, forgetting that pastors are human and can fall anytime.”
Another user, Sir_Lablu said, “Nigerians need to stop falling prey for humans with self-proclaimed titles. Bolaji Idowu here, a.k.a. “Pastor,” arrested for fraud & money laundering! Also named his church “Harvesters International Christian Center.” Busy harvesting the congregation’s hard-earned money?”
In the pastor’s defence, an X user, Ebuka said, “I know Most Pastors are crazy. But Pastor Bolaji will never involve himself in Fraud. This can’t be true. I condemn this news.”
Another X user, Val, said, “The talks flying around about pastor Bolaji Idowu are flimsy and don’t hold water, going on those websites and it’s 3 lines of the same rhetoric.”
One Etoro said, “For them to arrest Pastor Bolaji Idowu, it means they have some sort of evidence against him. Why do some Christians love giving these people the ammunition to keep hurling stones at the church? This is disgraceful, to say the least.”
