Date: 2012-04-14

Temi Eseyin, a lawyer and pastor with the Living Faith Church aka Winners Chapel, is being tried by the disciplinary committee of the Nigerian Bar Association over allegations of professional misconduct involving N155.3 million fraud

These are trying times for Temidayo Eseyin, senior pastor of the Living Faith Church, popularly known as Winners Chapel, in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.  In the past few weeks, Eseyin's integrity as a pastor and lawyer has been put on trial because of the allegations of unprofessional and unethical practices in the recovery of a judgement debt of N155.3 million brought against him by Omotayo Oluleye, an Ilorin-based business woman.

He is currently facing trial before the disciplinary committee of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, over an alleged professional misconduct. When his trial began on Monday, February 27, at the Appeal Court, Abuja, venue of the sitting, he was faced with the double burden of extricating himself not just from allegations of professional misconduct but that of a pastor who is alleged to have defrauded a member of his flock.

Oluleye, the petitioner, who is the director of Samvour Enterprises as well as Wealth Creation Investment Limited, said she decided to drag Eseyin to the body of benchers when all entreaties to the church elders to talk to her pastor cum lawyer to do what was right came to naught.

In her petition to the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee of the NBA, North Central Zone, Abuja, dated January 18, 2010, Oluleye said her alleged ordeal in the hands of Eseyin started sometime in 2008, when he volunteered on compassionate ground to help her recover the sum of N130 million that was "fraudulently removed" from the account of Wealth Creation Investment Limited, her company through an Ibadan High Court order. Before this judgement, the total money in the said bank account was N155, 343,600.00. The money belongs to her, her co-signatory to the account and creditors of the company.  She claimed that before the court order, neither her nor her company were served any summons or the court processes from trial to execution of the judgement which were done within 10 weeks. She was also denied access to the use of the credit balance in the bank account on the basis of the blockage of transaction over it by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.

The petitioner, however, claimed that when Eseyin offered free legal service to help her on compassionate ground, she did not accept. Rather, she agreed to pay a certain sum for the legal services the moment he was able to recover the money from the Ibadan High Court order. She also paid him filing fees and transportation fares for the occasions he went from Ilorin to Ibadan, to represent her.

Oluleye claimed that when it was becoming difficult for Eseyin to recover the money "fraudulently removed" from her company's account, he advised her to appeal against the Ibadan High Court order at the Court of Appeal which she accepted. She said that accordingly, she paid the filing fees and transportation fares demanded by Eseyin.

Oluleye was, however, disappointed when he found out that Eseyin did not file the appeal as requested after collecting filing fees and transportation fares.

She claimed that Eseyin then advised that they should handle the case through the same "fraudulent" approach which the Ibadan High Court used against her but she rejected it.

Oluleye said that despite the fact that she rejected that approach, Eseyin "manoeuvred his legal skills to present fictitious claims and claimants to the High Court of Justice, Ilorin, as creditors" to her company, Samvour Nigeria Enterprises."  She explained that it was based on this submission which she claimed was deceptive that Justice J.F Gbadeyan of the Ilorin High Court delivered another judgement in May 2009, ordering Stanbic IBTC Bank, Ilorin, to pay N155. 342,600 from Oluleye's Samvour Nigeria Ltd account, to some 158 investors in her company, as prayed by Eseyin in suit No KWS/83/09.

But Oluleye's hope of returning to her boisterous business of personal wealth creation was again dashed as Eseyin refused to let her have access to the money. She stated in her petition that the sum of N155, 342,600 together with interest in the account was collected by Eseyin.

She claimed that after collecting the money, Eseyin invited her to his office and handed her a cheque of N20 million out of the N155.3 million as her own share of money recovered from her credit balance account with the Stanbic IBTC PLC. According to her, Eseyin was still holding on to the balance of the judgement debt to the tune of N130.3 million.

Consequently, she has been unable to pay the genuine creditors of Wealth Creation Investment Limited who have been filing series of cases against her in various courts all over the federation.  Oluleye was unhappy with the way Eseyin handled the matter, hence she filed a petition with the NBA against him.

However, Eseyin has described the allegations levelled against him by Oluleye as false. He claimed that when the petitioner was introduced to him in December 2008, the only matter handed over to his chambers was a suit involving one "Mrs Modupe Agnes Durotoye for herself and 650 other subscribers of Wealth Creation Investment Scheme and four others Vs Skye Bank PLC and Spring Bank." According to him, the defendants were alleged to have fraudulently withdrawn about N95 million from the account of Wealth Creation Investment Limited based on the judgement delivered at Ibadan.

Eseyin claimed that the briefing he was given was to set aside the judgement because the transactions leading to the suit took place in Kwara and not Oyo State.

He explained that after taking professional steps, he filed the necessary papers at the Ibadan High Court. Eseyin said that when Oluleye asked him about his professional fees, he told her that it was too early to talk about that especially as she had informed him that the judgement may have been "fraudulently" gotten from the Ibadan High Court. He, therefore, denied collecting professional fees and transport fares from the petitioner throughout the duration of the case.

Eseyin said Oluleye and Olushola Alade, her co-director in Wealth Creation Investment Limited were always pleading that he should bear with them. He explained that he had to proceed with the case because the pastorate of the Living Faith Church, Ilorin, where he is a pastor, mandated him to help the petitioner. According to him, he encountered a lot of problems in the course of handling the case. For instance, on February 9, 2009, he had an accident with his car within Ilorin town when he was travelling to Ibadan, to pursue the case. He explained that in spite the accident, he took the victims to the hospital and still travelled to Ibadan with another car to argue the application to set aside the judgement and garnishee order against Oluleye's company.

Eseyin said of all the cases he filed at the Ibadan High Court on the matter, it was only the suit involving Folaranmi Oladosu Vs Wealth Creation Investment Limited that he succeeded in setting aside the judgement and garnishee order. This was why he suggested an appeal against the other decision but the petitioner did not provide money for him to pursue the case at the Appeal Court.

He claimed that on April 14, 2009, the petitioner and Alade, her co-director, came to him that they were under a lot of pressure from their investors following the rumour that Durotoye had started paying some people. It was at this juncture that he advised them to gather other investors and get a lawyer to file a case so as to relieve them of the pressure. "The petitioner and Mr Olushola Alade later came back with what they called investment slips of Samvour Nigeria Enterprises for some investors they claimed they gathered requesting us to file a suit against Samvour Nigeria Enterprises," he stated.

Eseyin said he was reluctant to preceede with the case until the intervention of the wife of the regional overseer of the church and counsellor to the petitioner.

Consequently, he filed the suit for 158 investors as presented by Oluleye and her co-director against Samvour Nigeria Limited and not Wealth Creation Limited and judgement was delivered on May 28, 2009. Eseyin claimed that Oluleye's co-director was in court on the day the judgement was delivered.

When the garnishee proceedings succeeded, a draft was issued by Stanbic IBTC Bank PLC on June 29, 2009, for the payment of N155, 342,600 to the chief registrar, Kwara State Court of Justice, Ilorin. Subsequently, an Afribank draft dated July 3, 2009, payable to Temidayo Eseyin & Co, for the sum of N154, 410,544.40 was in turn given to Eseyin through the High Court after the bank charges were deducted.

Eseyin further stated in his defence that because of the injunction at the High Court that the signatories to the account of Samvour Nigeria Enterprises must sign as a 'consent to release' the fund, the petitioner and her co-director signed the letter in his absence for the release of the cheque. He claimed that the petitioner then opted for the collection of cash for disbursement to the claimant. According to Eseyin, a list was presented on July 6, 10, and 13, 2009, indicating the various sums of money collected by the petitioner and her co-director for payment of the investors. The lawyer denied the allegation of the petitioner that he defrauded her through unprofessional and unethical practices in the recovery of a judgement debt of N155.3 million.

The Legal Practitioner Disciplinary Committee of the Nigerian Bar Association which is still deliberating on Oluleye's petition adjourned further hearing to April 29 and 30, 2012.

When Newswatch contacted the Living Faith Church in Ilorin, to ascertain their position on the issue of the alleged fraud involving the pastor and a member of the church over funds deposited by innocent investors in the controversial 'wonder bank,' a senior member of the church, who craved anonymity, said "the church has a responsibility to comfort members who are distressed and give assistance where necessary."