Religious heavyweight Pastor Chris Oyakhilome of the Believers Loveworld International, aka’ Christ Embassy, is on the warpath with one of Nigeria’s most distinguished bankers and chairman of Zenith Bank, Jim Ovia and the reason, as usual when rich men fight, is pecuniary.
The popular preacher has amassed a formidable legal team to battle Ovia and Zenith over allegations that the bank robbed his church blind.
Through Loveworld Christian Network Television, the televangelism arm of Christ Embassy, Pastor Chris has dragged Zenith and one of its managers John Osajele before the learned justice of the federal high court, hoping to recover ₦1 billion in wrongful deductions and ₦3.8 billion in damages for alleged excessive charges, wrongful entries and mismanagement of its accounts.
Narrating a tale that resembled a massive underhand heist, the church’s lawyer, Chief Paul Omojiade revealed how Zenith had over the years allegedly drained funds from the church’s four accounts with the bank in the name of deductions and banks charges which were neither legal nor authorized. The four bank accounts —.Christ Embassy South Africa Project, Loveworld SAT Telecom, Christ Embassy Loveworld Project, and Christ Embassy South Africa Project — had Pastor Oye Oyakhilome as the sole signatory but his approval was neither sought nor was he informed anytime the bank allegedly slapped an inflated deduction on the accounts.
Zenith had lend Loveworld Christian Network Television the sum of ₦970 million to enable it carry out some necessary projects with the debt agreed to be paid installmentally and through deductions from the organization’s accounts with the bank. However, it was agreed that any transactions on the accounts must be approved by the signatory through written instructions by fax or post or email.
Trouble arose when, in June 2016, the bank told the plaintiff that it had debts of ₦786 million outstanding, at which point Christ Embassy cried wolf and brought in a team of experts to audit the organization’s dealings with the bank. Despite several requests for Zenith to release the statements of accounts to facilitate proper reconciliation, the bank neglected to do so. The team of auditors however concluded that Zenith had overdrawn Loveworld’s accounts to the tune of :N696,337,434.00 through excessive charges.
In an attempt to strong-arm Christ Embassy into paying what amounted to illegal debts according to their lawyers, the Zenith top brass allegedly used its connections within the EFCC and the Nigerian Police force to invite some top members of the church for questioning on trumped up charges of defrauding the bank. The people “invited” were Pastor Chris himself, as well as Pastor( Mrs Ose Oyakhilome, Pastor Modupe Osideko and Pastor Iruka Edema. In fact, the quartet were actually arrested on 7th,July 2016 by the Nigerian Police, Homicide Section, Alagbon, a department of the police that deals with criminal, and not civil, cases.
With the damage done and the Rubicon crossed in the dispute, it was time to go to war. Christ Embassy wants the court to order Zenith to tender a letter of apology for mismanaging its accounts. It also wants the bank to pay ₦3.89 billion as well as releasing the funds in the church’s four accounts, ₦8.8 million in treasury bills bought with the church’s funds, and ₦707 million total in unauthorized disbursements and excess charges.
The bank, as you would expect, is not taking the case lying low either. It has gathered its own team of legal luminaries to challenge Christ Embassy’s claim and wants the court to instead declare that it is the party being owed money while penalizing the plaintiff for making false claims and defaulting on the terms of the initial loan
