Magistrate Umezulike of an Enugu magistrate court has convicted the General Overseer of Christian Charismatic Movement, CCM, Enugu chapter, Sabinus Onuigbo, for forgery.
Magistrate sentenced the senior pastor to seven years imprisonment without option of fine.
Convicted along with the cleric for the same offence were three other pastors of the church namely, Tony Chukwu, Chukwuma Orji Victor and Nick Nwoye.
Magistrate Umezulike sentenced the clerics to three years with an option of N20,000 fine.
According to the charge sheet in the suit number CME/56C/2017, Onuigbo and the other accused persons, on or about July 16, 2014, and August 10, 2014, allegedly used forged documents to apply to the Corporate Affairs Commission to change the trustees of the church.
In his ruling, the Magistrate noted that the convicts lawyers did not debunk the allegations or contradict it all through with their defence.
He added that the evidence before the court showed that the prosecution proved the allegation of forgery beyond reasonable doubts.
Magistrate Umezulike pointed out that the defence resorted to underhand tactics to undermine his judgement because as his proceedings was ongoing, there were intermittent interference.
But facts before the court found four of the accused guilty while the fifth accused was not party to the allegations.
