Pastor fakes his death, circulates obituary to escape N3million debt

An Ondo-based pastor, Paul Oyewole, has been arrested for allegedly faking his death in a bid to avoid repaying a N3 million debt owed to a church member.

The 43-year-old clergyman was accused of printing and posting his own obituary on the social media platform, WhatsApp.

Oyewole was arraigned on Wednesday at the Chief Magistrate Court, Ondo Town on charges of fraudulently obtaining N3 million (N3,000,000) from one Boyede Emmanuel, with the promise to pay back the money within seven days.

According to Police Prosecutor, Akao Moremi, the defendant failed to fulfil the promise and instead published his obituary on WhatsApp after he had sent a fake bank alert.

Oyewole pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The pastor was also said to have “threatened the complainant on phone, with the intent to intimidate him and also conducted himself in a manner likely to cause a breach of the peace, by stripping himself naked in front of the house of the complainant.”

He was granted N1 million bail with two sureties in like sum.

Meanwhile, Hip Hop artiste, DanDizzy recently took to Twitter to share a heartbreaking story of a boy who has spent seven years in prison because his mother could not bail him.

The woman reportedly fell victim to scam perpetrated by the lawyer she hired to help secure her child’s release.

According to DanDizzy, she borrowed money from an unknown person so that she could bail him, unfortunately, the lawyer duped her and disappeared.

He revealed that the woman has been paying off the debt of N90k for seven years while her child is still imprisoned.

The rapper wrote; ”I just heard the story of a boy in prison, his mom borrowed money to help bail him for a very minor crime, the lawyer duped her and she’s been paying a debt of 90,000 naira for 7 years & her son is still in prison, Forget our leaders, Nigerians are so cruel to each other.”