However, a July 2016 ruling of a Lagos State High Court at Igbosere acquitted and discharged Jimoh and two others charged with conspiracy to rob the church.
The Mountain of Fire and Miracle Ministries (MFM) has stated that its ex-members who were locked up for nine years chose to remain in prison because nobody went to secure their release after they were granted bail.
Pastor Femi Jimoh, who identified himself as a former MFM pastor, had accused the church of being behind his incarceration for nine years without trial, over alleged armed robbery.
Jimoh, who disclosed this in an interview with Yoruba Gidi TV, alleged that his trial started when he met the chief security officer of Pastor Daniel Olukoya at a native doctor's house.
He said he was beaten and handcuffed while a Divisional Police Officer shot him in the leg.
According to him, his mother and sister went to beg Olukoya on his behalf but he told them that he would be released only if he pleaded guilty in court.
Also, a former usher with the church, Caleb Oloruntele, alleged that the church founder, Olukoya ordered the police to shoot him.
Oloruntele also revealed this in an interview with Yoruba Gidi TV.
According to him, Olukoya wanted him dead because he refused to give false testimony against a pastor he identified as Femi Agboola.
The former usher said he was prosecuted in 2008 without any concrete evidence to prove the allegation made against him.
The Chief Legal Adviser of the church, Davidson Adejuwon, during a press conference in Lagos on Friday, noted that their claims of being in jail for nine years for an offence they did not commit was false, mischievous and misleading.
He accused Pastor Femi of being a serial offender in the ministry.
He narrated two incidents in Warri and Ibadan that he claimed showed Pastor Femi’s character while he was with MFM.
He said, "Their claims of being locked up in jail for nine years for an offence they did not commit was false, mischievous and misleading. Pastor Femi has been a serial offender in the ministry.
"If not forgiveness and magnanimity, what other reason or factor that will make an organization to keep giving its offending staff another chance after every offence committed?
"It’s actually absurd to imagine that the church as big as MFM will go so low to frame up two of his ministers, just because of a claim which is even false.
"They were never locked up for nine years, they were granted bail but nobody went to secure their bail. They chose to remain in the custody.
“As such, a case of planned armed attack on credible intelligence against the church which could have led to the death of any member cannot be treated and handled internally by the church.
“We must report such to the law enforcement agency saddled with the responsibilities to investigate and deal with such issues. And that was exactly what we did as a responsible church.”
Michael Gbadamosi, the chief security officer of Pastor Olukoya whom Pastor Femi accused of meeting at a native doctor's house in Ogbomoso, was present at the briefing.
He described the claim as untrue.
“I know that Ogbomoso is in Nigeria, but I Michael Olawale Gbadamosi, have never been to Ogbomosho before," he said.
However, a July 2016 ruling of a Lagos State High Court at Igbosere acquitted and discharged Jimoh and two others charged with conspiracy to rob the church.
The other defendants in the case were Henry Aiyewero and Caleb Oloruntele.
Justice O. A. Wiliams in her ruling said, “I therefore find that the Inference that there is an agreement between the defendants to commit the crime of robbing MFM church cannot be made.
“The prosecution not having proved its case, there is no burden on the defendants to prove their defence. I find and hold that the prosecution has failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt. The defendants are therefore acquitted and discharged.”
Beyond that, one of the exhibits presented in court by the prosecution was a video recording of when the suspects met in a bar to allegedly conspire to rob MFM.
However, according to the testimony of the manager of the hotel in a court document obtained by SaharaReporters, the prosecution witnesses ‘stage-managed’ the setting.
He said he permitted a friend of one of the prosecution witnesses to use the hotel’s bar for a movie.
The hotel manager said he was shocked to later find out that some of the ‘actors’ had been put in jail.
The court document read, “Paul Effiong the manager of Jethro Hotel testified as DW5 (Defence Witness 5). He stated that PW1 (Prosecution Witness 1- Adebayo Fatai, who testified as a security guard at Savannah Bar in Onike) and PW3 (one Akeem Asalu) are his customers. He deposed that he was informed by one Orji, PW3's friend that movie would be shot at the hotel's bar and happily gave his consent.
“He narrated how about 11 people including PW1, PW3, Orji and the defendants came for the video shoot and how it was set. He was shocked to see the defendants on television and to hear that they were robbers about a month later.
“He stated that he was suspended at work for about a month for permitting the shoot and eventually sacked. When he met up with PW1, PW3 and Orji after he got a new job and brought up the issue of the movie, Orji told him there was no movie, that what it was an arranged work, a business deal.
“When he probed him further, PW1 gave him a phone number, which he called and he spoke to a lawyer who told him the three people involved were in prison.
“Under cross-examination, he stated that he worked in Jethro Hotel in Iwaya between July 2007 and 19/04/08 and that the video was shot in the bar of the hotel. He added that he was sacked because he did not inform the management or get approval before he allowed the film to be shot at the hotel.”