A witness in the ongoing fraud trial of Bishop Katung Jonas and Okewole Dayo has told the Federal High Court in Jos that the defendants allegedly exploited religious influence and church sermons to lure over 44,000 Nigerians—including himself and his wife—into a fraudulent investment scheme worth over N178 million.
Testifying before Justice Sharon T. Ishaya on Tuesday, the First Prosecution Witness (PW1), Sulaiman Kwalla, said the accused used their spiritual platform and television sermons to promote the Covenant Fadama Multi-purpose Cooperative Society, a scheme he later discovered to be fraudulent.
Kwalla, led in evidence by EFCC counsel Ibrahim Buba, said he invested N200,000 of his own money and another N100,000 on behalf of his wife, Halima Ibrahim Danyaro, after watching Bishop Jonas’ sermons and the cooperative’s adverts aired on Plateau Radio Television Corporation (PRTV).
“Based on the Bishop’s religious standing and the promise of a 10 percent monthly return, I was convinced it was a genuine investment,” Kwalla told the court.
He said he paid the funds into an account with Dadin Kowa Microfinance Bank, which was said to be owned by the cooperative, and was issued official receipts. However, neither he nor his wife received any returns.
Kwalla recalled visiting the cooperative’s Secretariat Road office in Jos, only to meet a large number of distressed investors who had also been duped. On June 4, 2012, the situation escalated when a crowd gathered to demand refunds, forcing police to intervene and rescue Dayo, the society’s secretary, from the angry mob.
He said Bishop Jonas later acknowledged during a police-mediated meeting that he chaired the cooperative society and pledged to begin refunds by July 2012—a promise that was never kept.
“At every turn, there were new excuses,” Kwalla testified. “Eventually, Bishop Katung introduced Lanre Global Concept, a firm he claimed could help retrieve our funds from abroad. When that failed, he introduced another platform, Global View, and admitted that some cooperative funds had been diverted into forex trading. All these moves turned out to be fraudulent.”
Following months of unfulfilled promises, the aggrieved investors, through their lawyer Solomon Dalung, petitioned the EFCC, alleging a total fraud of over N8 billion involving more than 44,000 victims.
Kwalla added that while his personal investment was eventually refunded through a cooperative official, his wife’s N100,000 remains unpaid.
Bishop Katung Jonas and Okewole Dayo are facing a 23-count charge for obtaining money under false pretences, in a case being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).