The Grace Nation Church International in Lagos has debunked a petition circulated by a former member alleging that he was recently defrauded by the church.

The former member, Michael Omolayo Ibukun, who was also a member of the church’s protocol team, alleged that two cars were forcibly taken from him and sold to unknown persons.

In his petition to the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Ibukun also alleged that the Grace Nation Church refused to pay the N50 million it owed him for the diesel his company, Blessed Energy Resources Limited, supplied the church some months ago.

Also included in the petition was a request that the cars taken from him by the church be recovered while the monies owed him from the diesel sale be paid in full.

This, according to sources, would instigate a police inquest that climaxed with the invitation of the church’s founder, Dr Chris Okafor, by the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Adegoke Fayoade, to his office.

Reacting to the allegations via a statement made available to The Star on Saturday, June 29, 2024, the church said it had no case to answer.

The Grace Nation Church International, in a statement issued by its spokesman, Henry Okoduwa, said: “There cannot be anything farther from the truth. For the records, the said cars were willingly given as an offering to God by Ibukun who, joyous and in an expansive mood for the blessings he received from God, decided to drop the car keys on the altar after giving a testimony during one of the church’s services that was broadcast live about three years ago.

“Ibukun had particularly been enamoured by the fact that God broke the jinx of no male children in his lineage when his wife conceived and bore him a son following the prayers of Dr Chris Okafor, the church’s head pastor.

“That is why we find it particularly strange that the same person who willingly gave his cars with the original documents attached would turn around a few years later to demand that they be given back.

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“The church is also scandalised to hear him allege that he was being owed N50 million for the diesel fuel he supplied it when in actual fact he was paid all the monies owed him for the few times he transacted business with the church.

“It therefore does not need high intelligence for anyone to fault Ibukun’s debt story because it’s illogical for him to have recently gone to Dr Chris Okafor, the church’s patriarch to make a request of a N10million loan when all he needed to have done was demand that part of what was being owed be paid.

“He had asked for a loan which he said he wanted to re-inject into his business, and despite being unable to offer the assistance because of the enormous resources that had been sunk into the rebuilding and expansion project the church undertook in 2023, God’s servant, Dr Okafor still sought for a way out by referring him to his bank.

“That the bank could not help at the end was not because the man of God did not want to. Mr Ibukun failed to convince the bank that he would be able to repay the loan. They said he was not credit-worthy.

“The church authorities also faulted Ibukun in the area of offerings and tithes giving, saying that it does not compel people to give.

“Thankfully, we run live telecast of all our programmes/services and our mantra is to always allow people to give what they can afford at any given time. The church does not monetise its services or the blessings derived therefrom, nor does it compel people to give what they are not led to give.

“Since we abhor the practice of making altar calls in which members or visitors are asked to drop their cars and landed properties, it is sheer contradiction to imagine that Ibukun was asked to.

“Ibukun who is presently on the run for defrauding two of the church’s members of the combined sum of N11 million recently do not appear to us as someone who is qualified to cast aspersions at an organisation as ours that is Godly, honest and law-abiding.

“More than anything else, Ibukun has proved, with his latest fraudulent activities, that he does not deserve the sympathy he has desperately sought from the public with his tissue of lies and deliberate falsehood.

“This is why it will be in the interest of those who might be tempted to be hoodwinked by his story and join him in his current campaign of calumny against the church to desist.”

The Star