The clergyman is facing accusations of defrauding church members and other individuals, amounting to N1,319,040,274.31 (One Billion Three Hundred and Nineteen Million, Forty Thousand, Two Hundred and Seventy-Four Naira, Thirty-One Kobo). The alleged fraudulent activity involves the use of counterfeit grants from the Ford Foundation.
EFCC spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, in a statement on Monday, February 5, 2024, said Ebonyi was arrested for defrauding his victims, comprising Non Governmental Organisations, NGOs and individuals by advertising an intervention project through his NGO (Theobarth Global Foundation) claiming that the Ford Foundation was offering a grant of $20,000, 000 (Twenty Billion United State Dollars) to assist the less-privileged in the society.
He allegedly beguiled his victims to subscribe as beneficiaries of the phoney grant by asking them to pay for registration forms and clusters. Each subscriber was made to pay N1,800,000 (One Million, Eight Hundred Thousand Naira) only.
