The Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu has accused the Founder/Head of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Oke Afa, Lagos, Primate Elijah Ayodele of blackmail and attempting to extort N150 million from him for “spiritual intercession” to make him governor of Oyo State.
At a stakeholders’ engagement of leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) last October, Adelabu declared his intention to join the 2027 governorship race.
In 2019, Adelabu was the governorship candidate of the APC, which was the ruling party in the state. He, however, lost to Engr. Seyi Makinde of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who will complete his second and final term in 2027.
Also, in the build-up to the 2023 election, Adelabu resigned from the APC and joined the Accord Party where he ran again and lost to Makinde. He, however, returned to the APC in 2023 after he was appointed minister by President Bola Tinubu.
According to the petition, Ayodele asked Adelabu to bring the items by 1 April. He later extended the grace till 4 April. He wrote: ‘Sir, I don’t do this, but because of the love I have for you”.
The cleric told the minister that he had sent him several letters while he was Deputy Governor (Operations) of the Central Bank of Nigeria between 2014 and 2018 and at other times in Ibadan since he became a minister, but there was no reply. He repeatedly made requests to call the minister, who told him he was on pilgrimage. Ayodele asked Adelabu to “recite almu nasira 200 times”.
The cleric told the minister that what he was doing was based on instruction given to him by God. Ayodele repeatedly told the minister that he would rule Oyo State.
A part of the text message read: ”I have divine advice for you sir, which can help a lot, sir. Kindly pick my call.
”Do vigil and the angel of God is coming to hear request by 1am…I don’t want you to lose the coming election. That is why I’m following the instructions”.
After the incident, Ayodele, while speaking in his church, allegedly said that Adelabu had failed and would not become governor.
In some video clips seen by TheCable, Ayodele said that Adelabu had made mistakes and his message to the minister was a “warning from God”.
The cleric was said to have dared the minister to arrest or sue him.
In the petition to the DSS, Adelabu said that he rejected Ayodele’s requests because he believes his ambition is driven by genuine service and not by spiritual manipulation or fetish practices. He asked the DSS to investigate Ayodele and compel him to retract his “false prophecies” and apologise.
The petition read: “I write to formally draw the attention of the Department of State Services (DSS) to the extortive, deceitful, and inciting activities of one self-acclaimed pastor known as Primate Elijah Ayodele, of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, whose actions have become not only personally distressing to the Honourable Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, but also capable of disturbing public peace and undermining the integrity of the political process in Oyo State.
“Since his tenure as the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and particularly in the period leading up to his current aspiration to serve as the Governor of Oyo State, this individual had persistently approached him with unsolicited offers of ‘spiritual intercession’ purportedly to guarantee electoral success.
“Under this guise, he had on several occasions demanded huge sums of money and expensive spiritual items, cumulatively amounting to over N150 million (one hundred and fifty million naira), as purported prerequisites for divine favour. The minister had consistently declined his requests, believing that his political ambition is driven by genuine service to the people and not by any spiritual manipulation or fetish practice.
“Following the Honourable Minister’s refusal to accede to his extortionate demands, Primate Ayodele has embarked on a campaign of malicious and false prophecies targeted at discrediting him publicly. He has gone as far as declaring through various media channels that ‘God told him he will not win the election’ and has recently made more provocative and inciting statements suggesting that he would fail because of his association with the ‘Èmi Lòkan’ slogan (‘It’s my turn’).
“As a Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he had previously chosen to ignore his antics to avoid unnecessary public confrontation with a religious figure. However, Primate Ayodele’s continued propagation of these false prophecies, which are evidently retaliatory and malicious in nature, now pose a threat not only to the minister’s reputation but also to public order and confidence in the democratic process.
“I therefore urge the Department of State Services to kindly investigate the activities of the said Pastor Ayodele for extortion, blackmail, and deliberate dissemination of false and inciting information; compel him to retract his false prophecies and issue a formal written apology; and bring him under the force of the law, in accordance with relevant provisions of the Nigerian Constitution and Criminal Code, to deter similar fraudulent religious practices in the future”.
The minister also petitioned the Oyo State Commissioner of Police over the cleric’s “extortive and inciting activities”.
In a phone conversation with TheCable, Ayodele said that Adelabu was the one who approached him first. He said Adelabu sent emissaries to him because he was desperate to become governor.
He said: ‘I didn’t blackmail him. We didn’t have any transaction. Again, no money was exchanged between us.
‘I discussed some terms with him, which he didn’t agree with. I didn’t make any attempt to extort him. I can sell my services for any amount. I can value it at N1 billion as much as I provide the value he wants. It’s nobody’s business. Why did you come to me in the first place if you didn’t believe in me? What are you doing with someone you claim is dishing out fake prophesies? He should say anything he likes.
‘I’m big. I’m not poor. I take care of vulnerable people. I’m blessed in the Lord’.
