July 07, (THEWILL) – A former member of the Grace Nation Church International, Lagos, Michael Omolayo Ibukun and the founder and General Overseer of the church, Dr Chris Okafor, are at daggers drawn over the church’s resources. Problems started between the duo when Ibukun wrote a petition to the police alleging that he was defrauded by the church.
Ibukun, who was a member of the church’s protocol team, alleged that two cars were forcibly taken from him and sold to unknown persons. In his petition, Ibukun alleged that the Grace Nation Church refused to pay the N50 million it owed him for the diesel his company, Blessed Energy Resources Limited, supplied to the church some months ago. Also included in the petition was a request that the cars taken from him by the church be recovered, while the monies owed him from the sale of diesel be paid in full.
Reacting to the allegations, the church said it had no case to answer as everything written in the petition are all lies and a calumny against the church. The church claimed that the said cars were willingly given as an offering with the original documents attached to God by Ibukun who, joyous and in an expansive mood for the blessings he received from God, decided to drop the car keys on the altar after giving a testimony during one of the church’s services that was broadcast live about three years ago.
The testimony was that God broke the jinx of no male children in his lineage when his wife conceived and bore him a son, following the prayers of the church’s general overseer. The church also claims it is scandalised that Ibukun is alleging that he is being owed N50 million for the diesel fuel he supplied it when in actual fact he was paid all the monies owed him for the few times he transacted business with the church. The church also claims that Ibukun recently approached the GO to request a N10 million loan which he said he wanted to re-inject into his business and despite being unable to offer the assistance because of the enormous resources that had been sunk into the rebuilding and expansion project the church undertook in 2023, the clergy man said he still sought for a way out for him by referring him to his bank.
Unfortunately, the bank could not help because, according to the GO, Ibukun failed to convince the bank that he would be able to repay the loan as he was considered not credit-worthy.
The church authorities also faulted Ibukun in the area of offerings and tithes giving, saying that it does not compel people to give and that since the church abhors the practice of making altar calls in which members or visitors are asked to drop their cars and landed properties, it is sheer contradiction to imagine that Ibukun was asked to.
The GO claims that Ibukun is currently on the run for defrauding two of his church’s members of the combined sum of N11 million and therefore doesn’t deserve the sympathy he has desperately sought from the public with his tissue of lies and deliberate falsehood.
