Ruth Semilore
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Popular prophet of the Celestial Church of Christ, Israel Ogundipe, has revealed how a bank offered him N1 billion loan.
Ogundipe, who is the founder of Genesis Global Ministry, Lagos, said he was offered the loan to help him expand his ministry to reach more members globally.
He revealed this while speaking on a show of popular Nigerian On-Air Personality, Ifedayo Olarinde, also known as Daddy Freeze on Tuesday.
He also mentioned that the bank, which he refused to name, showed him details of churches that have collected similar loans.
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Ogundipe explained that from the list he was shown, some churches took loans ranging from N3 billion to N4 billion.
“A bank called me two months ago and said they wish to loan me N1 billion. They offered me the loan and I asked them what for. They replied that they know churches are getting it (loan) and I would be able to pay it back because they know my church is big.
“Then I asked them how they want me to be paying back, and they said when we are doing revivals, crusades, we’ll be paying back monthly.
“And they mentioned some churches who got loans from them ranging from N3 billion to N4 billion. And I asked them how they expected me to pay back such an amount and they said those that collect such loans, that’s why they would never stop doing conferences, crusades, and revivals, and from there, they would get money to pay back,” the pastor said.
Ogundipe was in 2020 convicted and sentenced to jail for defrauding a London-based architect and converting her property for personal use.
The pastor was arraigned on a seven-count which includes stealing, unlawful conversion of property, forgery, and fraudulently collecting sums of N14m and £ 12,000 from the victim between 2002 and 2005.
