Church member petitions EFCC over botched N65.5m land deal with Lagos prophet

David Timilehin, a realtor, has petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over a controversial land deal involving Marcus Tibetan, a prophet of the Celestial Church of Christ, and Omolara Akintonde, a former first lady of Ogun state.

TheCable had reported how Timilehin accused Tibetan of collecting N65.5 million from him to procure land near the recently inaugurated Dangote refinery in Lagos state.

Timilehin said, in 2022, Tibetan informed him of the availability of two hectares of land (30 plots) supposedly in Ketu, Epe area of the state, belonging to Akintonde, the prophet’s church member. Timilehin said he paid the N65.5 million cost of the land to the prophet to be transferred to Akintonde.

But a year after, Timilehin has not been allocated the land; neither did he receive a receipt of payment nor any documentation of the land. Instead, he has been involved in a back-and-forth conversation with the prophet and Akintonde.

Timilehin said he also discovered the land is not anywhere close to the Dangote refinery, adding that the land belongs to the Lagos state government and is not meant for private use. He then requested a refund, saying he was no longer interested in the deal.

Despite evidence of bank transfers to Tibetan, the prophet, in an interview with TheCable, denied receiving money from Timilehin, while Akintonde insisted she has no business with Timilehin since he didn’t pay the money to her account.

Timilehin said the prophet and the first lady has not refunded his money.

LAWYER WRITES EFCC: PROPHET DUPED MY CLIENT, HIS ADOPTED SON

In a letter dated June 15 to the EFCC, Ayo Durojaye, Timilehin’s lawyer, said his client has been like an adopted son to the prophet, adding that his client also sees the cleric as a godfather and confidant, hence Timilehin trusted him.

Timilehin added that Tibetan and Akintonde have blocked his contact and there are indications they have travelled out of the country.

“I keep telling them that I am too young for what they are making me pass through. It’s like they want to kill me before my time. The regard I have for the prophet is no more. I took him as a spiritual father. But he has betrayed that trust,” Timilehin said.

“At one point, he sent me his account details showing how he transferred money to Akintonde. But I discovered that the account he sent money to is a company account belonging to one Mid-Oil Petrochemical Company which is allegedly partly owned by Akintonde.”

“But since I had no direct dealings with Akintonde, the onus is on him to collect the money back from the woman and pay me. What the woman is saying is that she did not collect money from me, which is true. I paid the money to the account of Prophet Tibetan

“I have suffered so much in the last few months since I began the battle to get my money back. I am not asking for any other thing apart from my money. Let him return my money. Nigerians who know Prophet Tibetan should prevail on him to return my N65.5 million.”