Prophet Israel Ogundipe, the Senior Shepherd-in-Charge of the Celestial Church of Christ, Genesis Global, has vowed to make money from his experience in prison.
The prophet, who was convicted and sentenced to one-year imprisonment by Justice Olabisi Akinlade on November 18 for stealing and unlawfully converting the property of a London-based architect, Mrs Oladele Williams-Oni, said there was a reason God sent him to prison.
Recall that Ogundipe had faced the court on seven counts bordering on obtaining by stealing, inducing delivery of money by false pretences, unlawful conversion of property and forgery, fraudulently collected N14m and £12,000 in various tranches from the complainant between August 30, 2002 and 2005.
Justice Akinlade found the cleric guilty on two counts of stealing and unlawful conversion of property not delivered, sentenced him to one-year imprisonment on each count and ordered that he pay the complainant N11m, which he obtained from her illegally.
The cleric was granted a post-conviction bail on health grounds by a three-man panel of the Court of Appeal in Lagos after weeks in prison. The man of God through his counsel, Babatunde Ogala (SAN), had approached the appeal court for bail pending the hearing of the appeal and an application to quash the conviction.
Addressing his church members days ago, the Prophet appreciated everyone who stood by him. He said his experience during his travails and a brief sojourn in prison has made him golden.
“I want to tell you that the devil is messing up with the wrong person. Maybe the devil thought what I went through would make me become cold but instead of me becoming cold, I’m gold! I’m gold that would be in the fire and still shine and still step out of the fire,” he said.
“Let me tell you: you might not go through what I went through but your own is coming but might not be as big as mine. It’s better He sends you to the wilderness than be dead. If you call yourself a mentor and you don’t have a tough example like mine, then you aren’t there. When I was there, I thought some people would come up to help but God shut them and said they were not going to do it.
“It’s always good to fight your battle while you are still young. I know a man of God who is currently battling with cancer. There’s no way you can do it but all you need to do is pray so that you won’t experience the one that will kill you. You want to hear more about my story. No! Go and download my app. Or you can wait for my book. I will make profit from my pain!
“If I didn’t go through the turbulence, I would have died. The only thing that I have brought out is forgiveness because if you call yourself a lawyer, there are a lot of lawyers there. There are a lot of billionaires there. There are a lot of doctors there. Don’t worry, you will hear a lot of stories. That is the only place God can send me for practical and I come out to feed you back, not in heaven, because I can’t come back. He wouldn’t send me to heaven. I can tell you there are teachers there who teach people who can’t go to school and earn five hundred monthly. If I should tell you what I saw there, Nigerian government will come after me.
“Someone got a 60-year sentence and the person is already 55. Do you think you know how to pray? Thank God for what He’s done for you. Let me tell you, there’s a reason God sent me there. Eleven million can never be my problem. Something that was said to be around N2.5 million suddenly became N11 million and I was told to do a plea bargain but I would advise anybody not to.”
