One Charles Mgbe, masquerading as a pastor of one of the pentecostal churches in Calabar, has been arrested by the police for allegedly defrauding his lover and others to the tune of more than N17 million.

Trouble for Mgbe is believed to have hit the high heavens when he allegedly sold two vehicles to a church member. It was gathered that after collecting money for one of the vehicles, bought in partnership with his estranged lover, he is said to have informed his lover that payment for the vehicle was still outstanding. Acting on the wrong information he fed his lover, a widowed retiree, the police received from the lady. The complaint prompted a late night raid to recover the said vehicle.

At the Zone 6 Police Command, Calabar, Cross River State where the matter was reported, investigations showed that Mgbe had fed wrong information to the police.

We also gathered that Mgbe systematically conned his lover into parting with a cumulative N15 million in a well planned scheme that left his lover broke. “The most painful part of this whole scam is that his lover’s bed ridden brother gave him on trust, his automated teller machine, ATM, card to withdraw some money to foot his medical bills but he went a step further to withdraw a little above N2 million from the account under false pretences. Mgbe did not even consider that the man who owns the account was bed ridden”, a police source told us.

It was also discovered that, prior before this seeming mayhem was unleashed, the church where he pastors and his lover is a deaconness, had accosted them and frowned at the unholy alliance, ” but they denied before us all that their relationship was not sexual in nature”, one church member said. But when the police interrogated the suspect and his estranged lover, both accepted that their relationship was canal.
Police sources further established that the suspect had serially conned his unsuspecting lover of huge sums of money under the pretext that he had Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, contracts to execute. Believed to have been married and separated, before now, the suspect did not at any point deny the plethora of allegations before his person.

At press time, he was still in the custody of the police at th Zone 6 Police Command, Calabar, for further investigations.