A Federal High Court sitting in Lafia, Nasarawa State, has ordered the permanent takeover of several properties linked to Pastor Theophilus Ebonyi after he was found to have acquired them through illegal means.
The ruling was delivered by Justice M.O. Olajuwon, who directed that the assets be handed over to the Federal Government following a case filed by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.
The court decided that the anti-graft agency had provided enough proof under the law to justify the seizure. It also noted that Ebonyi failed to give any valid reason why the properties should not be confiscated.
The assets affected by the order include a 23-room hotel and an event centre located in Nyanya Gwandara, a warehouse and sachet water factory in Karu, two office buildings, a primary school, and over one million naira found in a bank account.
The case is linked to Ebonyi’s arrest in 2023 over an alleged fraud involving about N1.3 billion. Investigations by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission showed that he operated through an organisation known as Theobarth Global Foundation, where he promoted a fake foreign grant said to be worth 20 billion dollars.
Victims were told the grant was connected to the Ford Foundation, which made the offer appear real. Many individuals and groups paid about N1.8 million each as a supposed registration fee to benefit from the scheme.
Findings later showed that the grant did not exist. The anti-graft agency said the operation brought in about N1.39 billion from people who believed the offer was genuine.
The Ford Foundation later denied any link to Ebonyi or his foundation, making it clear that it was not involved in the scheme in any way.
0 Comments
DISCLAIMER
The views and opinions expressed on this platform as comments were freely made by each person under his or her own volition or responsibility and were neither suggested nor dictated by the owners of News PLATFORM or any of their contracted staff. So we take no liability whatsoever for such comments.
Please take note!