By Chinyere Anyanwu
The Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries (MFM) has refuted allegations of frame up and injustice levelled against the church and her General Overseer, Dr. Daniel Olukoya, by two of her former pastors, Mr. Femi Jimoh and Mr. Caleb Oloruntele.
The church at a press briefing at her headquarters in Lagos on Friday, June 7, declared as “false, mischievous, misleading and cruel” the allegations that she framed up the former pastors for robbery which led to their being locked up in jail for nine years.
According to a statement signed by the church’s Legal Adviser, Davidson Adejuwon, the church wanted “to set the records straight and provide first-hand clarifications from the individuals who were directly involved with Mr. Femi Jimoh and Mr. Caleb Oloruntele at all the material times of the planned armed attack against the church.”
Present at the press briefing were three men who testified in court during the trial of Mr. Jimoh and Mr. Oloruntele that the accused men had approached them to “solicit their assistance on how to hire a gun for the purpose of robbing ‘first fruit’ offering of 2008.”
The men who were said to have reported the robbery plot to the police and were asked to play along, included Akeem Asalu, alias Omojomolo; Adebayo Fatai, alias Aboki; and Tajudeen Oseni, alias Orji. The trio narrated how the former MFM pastors, Jimoh and Oloruntele, alongside one other person, Mr. Henry, engaged them to assist them in attacking and robbing the church in January 2008.
They debunked the allegations that the criminal charge brought against the former pastors was a frame up as they had recorded evidence of their discussions with them on three occasions.
To further clarify the allegation that the church and her General Overseer, Dr. Olukoya blocked the chances of Jimoh and Oloruntele securing bail, the statement said: “Another lie being circulated to paint the church as being wicked and evil is that the General Overseer kept Mr. Jimoh and his co-conspirator, Mr. Oloruntele, in jail for nine years despite the pleas from his mother.”
The church’s legal adviser said “they were granted bail but they refused to perfect their bail. All that was expected of Mr. Jimoh, his mother and relatives as well as Mr. Caleb Oloruntele and his relatives was to get credible sureties to meet the bail condition which did not include payment of any sum as is being misunderstood by majority of people who are not lawyers.
“MFM is a responsible church that takes the welfare, safety and security of all her members very serious. As such, a case of planned armed attack on credible intelligence against the church, which could have led to the death of any member, is not one that can be handled internally by the church.
“We have a duty to report such to the law enforcement agency saddled with the responsibilities to investigate and deal with such issues. And that was exactly what we did as a responsible church. All other events that transpired thereafter at the police station and during trial were completely out of the control of the church because being a criminal matter it became a case between the state (government) and the defendants. The MFM church and her General Overseer, Dr Olukoya, did not jail Mr. Femi Jimoh and Mr. Caleb Oloruntele or any other person for nine years or for any period at all.”
Mr. Jimoh had granted an interview about two weeks ago accusing MFM church and her their General Overseer of being instrumental to their spending nine years in prison for an offence they did not commit. He also accused the church and her General Overseer of being unforgiving.