The statement said the suspect allegedly deceived his victims to subscribe as beneficiaries of the phony grant by asking them to pay for registration forms and clusters. Each subscriber was made to pay N1.8 million through which he smiled to his bank to the tune of N1.3 billion from unsuspecting Nigerians and NGOs across the country.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested Apostle Theophilus Ebonyi, General Overseer of Faith on the Rock Ministry International, for allegedly cheating church members and other Nigerians out of N1.3 billion in phony Ford Foundation grants.
EFCC’s spokesman, Dele Oyewale, in a statement, yesterday, said Ebonyi was arrested for defrauding his victims, comprising non-governmental organisations and individuals by advertising a fake $20 billion intervention project through his Theobarth Global Foundation, claiming that grant was offered to the less privileged persons from the United States’ Ford Foundation.
The statement said the suspect allegedly deceived his victims to subscribe as beneficiaries of the phony grant by asking them to pay for registration forms and clusters. Each subscriber was made to pay N1.8 million through which he smiled to his bank to the tune of N1.3 billion from unsuspecting Nigerians and NGOs across the country.
“Investigations by the EFCC showed that Ford Foundation had no arrangement, grant, relationship or business with Ebonyi. The foundation pointedly disclaimed him and his NGO, stressing that it had no link whatsoever with them,” the statement added.
The statement said that the suspect would soon be arraigned once investigations were concluded.