WITNESS TELLS COURT HOW BISHOP’S SERMONS LURED INVESTORS INTO N178.8M FRAUDULENT COOPERATIVE SCHEME
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By Aishat Momoh. O.
A witness in the ongoing N178.8 million fraud trial involving Bishop Katung Jonas and Okewole Dayo has told a Federal High Court in Jos, Plateau State, how the bishop’s religious influence and televised sermons misled him and thousands of others into investing in a failed cooperative society.
Testifying before Justice Sharon T. Ishaya on Tuesday, July 22, 2025, Sulaiman Kwalla, the first prosecution witness (PW1), said the bishop used his spiritual authority to convince members of the public to invest in the Covenant Fadama Multi-purpose Cooperative Society, which promised a 10 percent monthly return on investment.
“Based on the Bishop’s religious standing and the promise of a 10 per cent monthly return, I was convinced it was a genuine investment,” Kwalla told the court. He explained that he paid N200,000 of his own money and an additional N100,000 on behalf of his wife, Halima Danyaro, into an account at Dadin Kowa Microfinance Bank, which he believed was owned by the cooperative. He was issued official receipts for the payments.
Kwalla stated that advertisements for the scheme were aired on Plateau Radio Television Corporation, often immediately following Bishop Katung’s sermons, further reinforcing its perceived legitimacy.
However, after the first month, neither he nor other investors received the promised dividends. According to an EFCC statement, by June 4, 2012, angry investors gathered at the cooperative’s office in Jos to demand refunds. The situation escalated, and police had to evacuate Dayo, the cooperative’s secretary, for safety.
Kwalla recounted a subsequent meeting held at the Plateau State Police Headquarters involving Bishop Katung, investors, and the police, during which the bishop admitted to being the cooperative’s chairman and agreed to begin refunds from July 2012, a promise he allegedly failed to honour.
“Each time, there were new excuses,” Kwalla said. “Eventually, Bishop Katung introduced a consultancy firm, Lanre Global Concept, claiming it would help recover our funds from abroad. We refused, having no prior dealings with the firm.”
The witness said the bishop later introduced another platform, Global View, claiming that the cooperative’s funds had been channelled into forex trading, but this too yielded no results.
“All these promises turned out to be fraudulent,” he stated.
Following failed repayment efforts, investors, through their lawyer Solomon Dalung, petitioned the EFCC, alleging that over N8 billion was fraudulently collected from more than 44,000 investors.
Although Kwalla eventually recovered his personal investment of N200,000, the N100,000 he invested on behalf of his wife remains unreturned.
The EFCC is prosecuting Bishop Katung Jonas and Okewole Dayo on 23-count charges of obtaining money under false pretences to the tune of N178,885,000.
The trial continues.
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