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| Babalola |
In one of the sides, she has lawyers fighting, in another, she has a nongovernmental organisation, Network on Police Reforms in Nigeria (NOPRIN) and on the third side, she has her General Overseer. Each of them had a role to them.
But the expected end for all was to ensure that her brother, Mr. Afam Nriezed, was granted bail or his family allowed access to him.
As the battle raged, she had spent money. She was so sure that at the end of everything, she would see her brother. Nriezed was picked up by SARS operatives from a hospital in Ikorodu, Lagos, where he had gone for a surgery for being in possession of four police rifles, but later the accusation turned to kidnapping and robbery.
It’s been almost seven months that Nriezed was arrested, but for reasons unknown, SARS men had adamantly refused to allow his family access to him.
This standoff situation forced Okoro to seek NOPRIN, employ lawyers and finally intimated her General Overseer, Prophet David Babalola of ‘His Presence Redemption Ministry,’ located at Folorunsho Street Ogba, Ikeja, of her troubles.
Okoro said: “Frustrated by the persistent refusal of SARS men to either grant my brother bail or charge him to Court or even allow my family or legal representatives to see him, I and my sister, as members of his church, approached Babalola for assistance, believing and trusting him as a true Prophet and our spiritual father, he would help. He accepted to assist, assuring us that it was a ‘small problem’ compared to previous more difficult cases he had assisted other people to solve.”
According to her, just to sort the case and see to her brother getting bail, Babalola allegedly collected over N5million. She would have swept the matter under the carpet, but got furious after she realised that Babalola allegedly didn’t do anything concerning the matter. Recalling how it all started, Okoro said that she joined the church five years ago, after a close friend, who is also a pastor, invited her.
She said: “This pastor friend invited me to Prophet Babalola’s church because he had a deep knowledge of what my family was passing through. He said he knew Babalola because they grew up together. He said that Babalola was from a Muslim background, but got born again. He said God was using him.”
When she met the Prophet, he gave her messages and placed her on prayers. She soon started attending the church. She explained that after Nriezed’s arrest and detention, she and other members of her family has decided to approach and tell him about their problem. She said: “We went to him because he used to talk about having connection in the Presidency. We went to him because we were frustrated!
We thought that with the Prophet’s intervention, we could have access to our brother. I wasn’t even the person that came up with the idea of going to him. My sister, Ngozi did!” She said that it didn’t cross her mind to involve Babalola in their problem because she was angry with him. According to her, if not for her sister, she wouldn’t have gone to him.
Okoro said: “The reason I never thought of going to him in the first place was that sometimes in November- December last year, there was a kind of seed sowing in the church. I was a participatory member. I used to give all manners of seed sowing whenever it was called for. I gave it because I believe in God.” She narrated that there was a particular incident she didn’t like. They were in the church when Babalola, who was trying to raise money for the building of the present church, called her. “He wanted people to come out and sow a seed of N1 million.
He said that whoever sowed N1 million, would be given the person a plot of land in Abuja as replacement. What crossed my mind was that; if one had several plots of land to give to about five people, the person could sell those lands to build the church. Babalola suddenly called me; he said he wanted me to be a partaker of the seed sowing. He said that the ushers should lift and bring me out forcefully. When they were coming, I didn’t want anybody to rough handle me, so I got up and went to the altar. I wasn’t happy. I had always given without being forced before, why should I be forced this time around.
But I respected him a lot. Whenever he spoke, it’s like God was talking! That’s why I was always quick to sow seed. But on that particular day, I didn’t want to sow a seed of N1 million because I had a lot of financial commitments!”
She said she knew she wouldn’t redeem the pledge because she didn’t have such an amount. After that incident, she started skipping church services. “I travelled through Christmas, but he never once called me to know how I was faring. It was then I realised he used to look out for me because of the money he gets from me,” recounted Okoro. “He used to come to my home and visited me a lot. It was in January we had this problem. We were desperate women. Thus when my sister said this man had connections, that we should go to see him, I reluctantly agreed.” Okoro and her sister met Babalola at his home and spilled out their predicament. After listening with rapt attention, the Prophet said it was a minor problem.
Okoro recalled: “He said he had handled far more serious cases than what we were talking about. It gladdened our hearts that our pastor was going to help us. He said he would have to make some calls and that he needed to be in Abuja, so that he would be able to pull strings.” Immediately in their presence, Babalola ostensibly made some phone calls to an unnamed ‘top police officer’ at the Force Headquarters, Abuja and thereafter told them that he would need to travel to Abuja to see the said top police officer.
The next day, Babalola called Okoro and told her that he had spoken with his police contact in Abuja as well as a lawyer and then demanded the sum of $4,500, which he said would cover his air fares and other logistic, as well as a lawyer’s fee to secure the release of Nriezed. Okoro told Babalola that she could not afford such a huge sum, but the Prophet persuaded her to join efforts with her family members to ‘look for something and send across’, assuring her that her brother’s release was guaranteed.
Okoro said: “I took a cash sum of N300,000 to the church. My sister and I met with him in his office. We told him that the money was for his welfare and any other expenses. That was just for him to take off. He left for Abuja the next day being Monday. On Tuesday evening, he called and said he had met with his contact. He said that he was lucky to meet the contact because most of the people he knew had been transferred.
He said that the case would be easier if a lawyer was involved and the case transferred to Abuja.” Okoro said that her GO told her that when he got to Abuja, he saw lots of people going in with bags of money and stuff. She added: “He said that the police didn’t want naira there. They wanted dollars. He demanded the sum of 4,500 dollars from me. He even assisted me in calculating the naira conversion.
He told me they needed that amount but that the money should come in dollars for easy carriage. I wanted to agree to go and get the dollars myself but on second thought, I felt that if I started with dollars, I might end up spending dollars throughout the period of trying to settle the case. I told him I didn’t have dollars. I also told him that I didn’t have such an amount with me immediately. I begged him to give me time to rally round and get the money.” She said that she was able to raise N1m the next day. She told him to tell the policemen to give her time to rally round to get money to balance it up.
“The remaining was N1,000,000, aside the first N300, 000 I gave him in cash.” When Babalola returned from Abuja, he told Okoro to relax, that everything was in control. “I was excited. In fact, I practically told him that if he could do this for me, he would become a living god to me.” After some days, Babalola called. He said that the policemen were beginning to disturb him for the balance of the money. “I was under pressure. I raised N500,000 cash and gave to him. I also raised another N300,000. I was able to give him N1,800,000, which after a while; he started going to Abuja again.” She recalled that sometimes Babalola would call, insisting that he was broke.
She would send N50,000 to him. She said: “There was a day he called me that he had exhausted his money that he had to call his church members to send him money. I apologised for the inconveniences. After wards, we continued with the entire money thing. It got to a point that he came to my house. I started contemplating selling one of my cars, just to raise money. He encouraged me by saying that nothing was too big to pay for someone’s life.
He said that the car was not worth someone’s life. I started making efforts to sell off the car. I started parting with money. I have documents to show for it. It became clear that he wasn’t doing anything when three months passed and I still didn’t get any result. Today, he would tell me that some people came from Abuja to pick the file to Abuja, after about one week, the story would change. There were so many inconsistencies! After four months, my family and I started seeking another alternative after he told us that Afam had been transferred to Kuje Prison.” Okoro said that when she heard the Kuje Prison angle, she knew it was a blatant lie.
“You don’t remand people in prison without first charging them to court,” she spits. Okoro said that on one of the days the Prophet claimed to have travelled to Abuja after demanding and receiving money from her, and shortly after they spoke and he claimed to be talking to her from Abuja, she suddenly ran into him on the streets of Lagos. He attempted to dodge. On seeing that he had already been sighted, he tried incoherently and unconvincingly to explain away his sudden presence in Lagos. Trying to extricate her family from further dealing with Babalola, Okoro said that she told him that her mother’s people had taken over the case.
She explained: “I asked him how far he had gone and those he had contacted. I told him that my uncles wanted to know his efforts so far. He said there was no problem that he was going to Abuja, that when he gets there, my brother was coming back with him. He said that I should tell my mother’s people to hold on. I later went back to him and told him that my family members were on my neck. It was as if I was the one that wanted to kill my brother.
In the first place, the pain and torture I’m passing through is that I caused the whole thing! I was the person that took the police to where my brother was. Each time I thought of how my brother was picked, I always cry.”
Babalola called and informed Okoro that a police team from Abuja was coming to Lagos to take over her brother’s case and that the team would like to meet with a member of the detainee’s family. Curiously, when Ngozi met the police team at a hotel in Ikeja, one of the things they asked her to do was to make a statement changing the facts, to the effect that her brother was arrested in a beer parlour, instead of in a hospital at Ikorodu.
They also asked her not to mention that the family gave any money to Babalola in connection with the case. The woman refused. Presently, NOPRIN had petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission and the Police Special Fraud Unit (SFU), to probe the GO for fraud. Last week Thursday, New Telegraph correspondent was at Babalola’s church, but he was not available. The pastor on ground however said: “This story is all over the internet and in many newspapers. Many journalists had also been here. I can you that he doesn’t and wouldn’t speak on the matter.”
It was further gathered that Babalola said that ‘God told him’ not to speak on the matter. Meanwhile he had contacted his lawyers. Some weeks back however, when the story first broke, Babalola spoke to New Telegraph via phone. He said: “Initially, I didn’t want to get involved in the case, but the fact that the suspect’s sister is a member of my church and actually brought the matter to me, made me to get involve. It was in January that the family met and told me about the case. I told them what we could do to know the demand of the case, which primarily include going to Abuja to see the then Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr. Suleiman Abba.
I did that. Along the line, the IGP was removed. But at the Force Headquarters, a detective called Joseph was asked to write a petition on the matter, which he did. But election delayed them from further investigations. The last time I went to Abuja Force Headquarters, they said they would come to Lagos when the IGP approves. Finally, the IGP approved their trip and they came to Lagos, seeking to see a member of the suspect’s family.
The policemen said they needed a statement direct from a family member. I encouraged Ngozi to go and represent her family. But she was so afraid and refused making a statement. She said her uncle had intervened in the matter. This made me think that with all my effort, they were having second thoughts. They brought some money to facilitate the process.”
He said that prior to this drama; the family was confused whether the case was still at SARS or Abuja. The GO said that recently, he went to SARS to discover another petition in Afam’s case file. “Those that arrested Afam were directed to come to Abuja on Friday. They also invited me, but I will be in Abuja earlier because of other things I want to do there.”
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