The Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department (FCIID), Area 10, Garki, Abuja, has detained Israel Goodnews Balogun, a movie producer and Founder of Wholeness Africa Initiatives, over a petition filed by Apostle Johnson Suleiman.

At a Holy Ghost Convention in Auchi and an Impact 2021 programme in Atlanta earlier this year, Suleiman had declared that angels would credit the bank accounts of some members of the congregation. Several attendees found their way to the pulpit afterwards and said they had received credit alerts from angels.

READ MORE: For Criticising Apostle Suleiman’s Miracle Money, Israel Balogun is in the Police Soup

However, Balogun released a video on his Facebook page, arguing that the act was staged. Consequently, he got a lawsuit from Suleiman and an invitation from the FCIID.

In a letter dated July 27, Samuel Emune, Suleiman’s lawyer, had vowed to invoke “the entire due process of law” on the 38-year old critic for what he described as “hate speech and cybercrime terrorism”. One week later, Yahaya Abubakar, the Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of FCIID, Abuja, asked Balogun to report to the unit’s office on Wednesday.

Inibehe Effiong, counsel for Balogun, told FIJ that he, alongside his client, spent almost 10 hours with the FCIID on Wednesday and that Balogun was interrogated for about four hours before he was detained and given a severe bail condition.

He said, “My client was admitted to bail late but on very stringent conditions, to wit: that he had to produce a Level 14 civil servant or above who should deposit either his last promotion letter or a letter of introduction, and a second surety who should have a certificate of occupancy or be a businessman with a certificate of incorporation issued by the CAC.

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“We successfully produced a retired civil servant who also had a C-of-O and also produced a Level 13 civil servant who had a copy of his last promotion letter and his official identity card.

“However, the Police insisted that the civil servant must give them a letter of introduction in addition to his last promotion letter. On this basis, my client, who honoured the invitation without compulsion, was thrown into the cell to spend the night.

“We will make more efforts to secure the bail of Balogun on Thursday at the FCIID while hoping that the police will relax these stringent bail conditions which are usually set for serious offences like murder, kidnapping, and terrorism.”

Effiong also expressed hopes that the Police will investigate Suleiman, who “is yet to present his miracle money angels” since they deem his claims worth investigating and detaining a citizen for.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, Suleiman said he was not “using the instrumentality of the police to victimise Balogun” and that he was only concerned that he was called unprintable names.