'Pastor' In Imo Who Robs With False Prophesy Arrested

Road ends for fake pastor who used false prophecy to lure,
rob victims
A MAN who claimed to have been in pastoral ministry for
10 years and was on the run for sometime now is cooling
his heels in the custody of the Imo State Police Command,
Owerri.
Until his arrest, 45-year-old Delight Arinze Okorie, told
Sunday Sun reporter in Owerri that he was the pastor-in-
charge of Watered Ground Ministry.
He said: “I have been in pastoral ministry for over 10
years. When some of my members or the friends they
bring, come to tell me about their problems, I always give
them fake prophecies. If I discover that they have money, I
use the opportunity to rob them by setting them up with
the fake prophecies.”
As Sunday Sun further learnt in an interview with the
Commissioner of Police, Imo State, Mr. Taiwo Lakanu, this
was the strategy Okorie deployed in deceiving, robbing and
attempting to murder one member of the church, 35-year-
old Mrs. Chioma Oleka at Atta in Ihennasa, Njaba Local
Government Area, Imo State, by falsely claiming that she
was possessed with a mermaid (marine) spirit.
Lakanu explained that on May 25, 2016, Okorie lured Oleka
to Nwangele river, where she was to ostensibly undergo
special deliverance prayer. The lady drove her Lexus SUV
with a Rivers State registration number, KPR 243HF to
keep the appointment for prayers and deliverance.
Hear Okorie say what followed thereafter: “As we were
praying on the bridge, I went to the back of the vehicle and
picked up a machete. I gave her several cuts all over her
body with the intention to kill her. Then I pushed her from
the top of the bridge into the river for her to drown. Some
members of my gang, who pretend to be members of my
church, who went with me then escaped with the SUV,
when we sighted a police patrol team.”
Unfortunately for Okorie and the gang, Oleka miraculously
survived the vicious attack and fall into the river as she
did not drown. Rather she pretended to have died.
Recalling her fortuitous survival of the horrendous
experience she passed through, Oleka told Sunday Sun:
“Before this thing happened I had been attending Watered
Ground Ministry, the church headed by Pastor Okorie. He
always prophesied in the church and one day he said that I
had a mermaid (marine or mammywater) spirit. He said I
had to go for special deliverance prayer not knowing that
he wanted to rob and murder me. During the prayer ses­
sion, he suddenly pushed me from the top of the bridge
into the river. He gave me machete cuts thinking that I
would die. But a police patrol team rescued me, took me
to the hospital. I think I have learnt my lesson, that there
are many false pastors all over the place; we need God’s
intervention.”
After their successful escape from the crime scene, Okorie
and his gang members continued their operations for
several months thinking that the chapter had been closed
on what they did to Oleka.
However, providence was patiently waiting to expose them.
That day arrived when Oleka began to recover from the
attack while still in the hospital. When she was strong
enough to talk with police detectives investigating the
case, she recounted what happened and gave the police
the registration number of the car. For a while, the police
kept Okorie under surveillance and then moved in to arrest
him. During interrogation, he sang like a canary and re­
vealed his alleged past escapades in crime, robbery,
kidnapping and murder.
With information obtained from Okorie and the other
members of his gang, the police recovered the Lexus SUV
as well as the arms and ammunition of the gang.