The elder was dragged to the court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on a two-count charge of obtaining money under false pretense and stealing the money belonging to the head pastor and General Overseer of a Pentecostal church in the state.

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According to the anti-graft agency, Elder Ijeoma was arrested following a petition which was written to the commission that sometime in 2014, he had approached his GO with a business proposal to help raise funds to finance the importation of insecticide and pest sprayers from the United States of America.

He had allegedly put the cost of the importation at N10 million with a promise to pay back within three months after the sale of the products.

The complainant further stated that having advanced the sum to the suspect who was also an elder if the church council on March 18, 2014, the GO waited for more than the three months without receiving any payment as was promised.

The GO reportedly approached Elder Ijeoma and demanded to know why the products were not yet imported, to which he replied that he had invested the money in a US-based cream company and that NAFDAC approval was needed before the goods would be exported to Nigeria, a clear departure from what was agreed upon.

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When the charges were read to the accused, he pleaded not guilty to the charge and Justice Gafai ordered that he should be remanded in prison custody pending the hearing of his bail application.