BY OLA AJAYI
IBADAN—FOUR leaders of a faction of the Christ Apostolic Church, Worldwide including the President of the church, Pastor Elijah Olusheye were Wednesday docked at a Federal High Court in Ibadan over alleged forgery of some documents.

The leaders were taken to court by the federal government for allegedly fraudulently obtaining certificate of registration of the church in 1991 and 1995 having separated from others.

Those who were docked with the president of the church were Pastor Johnson Olabisi, Pastor Gideon Okegwemeh and Mr. Abdul-Hakeem Muhammed.

A four-count charge of forgery was leveled against them by the federal government.

The leaders of the church were said to have used the forged documents to deceive the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, into issuing a new certificate of registration on the strength of affidavits and other documents.

According to the charges brought against them, they were alleged to have deceived the CAC by allegedly pretending that the original certificate could not be retrieved from the Court of Appeal whereas the original certificate was in the custody of the then General Secretary, Pastor N. E. Udofia.

They were also alleged to have forged different minutes of meeting implying that some church leaders actually held meetings to authenticate their claims which the federal government did not agree to.

After docking the church leaders, they were later granted bail with a sum of N100,000 each, one surety and two passport photographs, to be submitted to the clerk of the court.

They all pleaded not guilty to the four count charge.

Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, SAN, who represented the accused persons, told the court that his clients had great respect for the rule of law arguing that normal processes were not followed before the case was brought to court.

He said: “In this matter such process has not been followed, no summons has been served on my clients, but even with that they still came to the court because of their respect for the court. Up till the present moment, they have not been served the charges against them.”

He expressed his displeasure with the way the prosecution had been using the police to harass his clients.

Justice Jonathan Shakharo said he had been given the impression that it was not easy serving the charges on the respondents.

He then ordered that the charges be read to the accused persons, who pleaded not guilty to the charges.

He then granted them bail, while also adjourning further hearing on the matter till November 8.