The man, Chimezie Chuta who is a former employee in the publishing unit of Dominion Book Stores, an online book store belonging to The Living Faith Church Worldwide was arraigned before Justice Mojisola Dada of the State High Court, Lagos for allegedly hacking into the company’s mail and diverting payments for goods bought by online customers to his personal account.
The defendant, who was said to have been an active member of the Living Faith Church Worldwide for six years, sometime in 2013, proposed to the church to build an online digital media store that would showcase all of Bishop David Oyedepo’s books and audio messages online to enable members of the church in the Diaspora to buy them and also receive digital copies.
Investigation revealed that the project was approved by the Church absolutely free of charge on contract basis. The defendant had also handed over all the relevant materials to the ICT Department of the church.
However, the defendant was alleged to have later gone behind to hack into the computer server of the church to perpetrate the fraudulent act.
The one-count charge reads:
“That you, Chimezie Chuta, sometime between the months of August 2013 and August 2016, at Lagos within the Ikeja Judicial Division, whilst being a staff of Dominion Book Stores stole the sum of $56,000 (Fifty-six Thousand United States Dollars), property of Dominion Bookstores, a publishing unit of the Living Faith Church Worldwide, through the Dominion Bookstores online platform dominionlinestore.org”.
He however pleaded not guilty to the charge. Justice Dada adjourned the case to March 7, 2018 for hearing of bail the application and commencement of the trial.