Bayo Adelabu, minister of power, has accused Primate Elijah Ayodele, founder and head of the INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Oke Afa, Lagos, of blackmail and attempting to extort N150 million from him for “spiritual intercession” allegedly intended to make him governor of Oyo state.
Adelabu, a former governorship candidate, has already declared his intention to contest the 2027 Oyo governorship election.
In a petition dated October 13, 2025, and signed by Bolaji Tunji, the minister’s special adviser on strategic communications and media relations, Adelabu told the director-general of the Department of State Services (DSS) that Ayodele had made false prophecies designed to malign him after he rejected repeated demands for money and expensive spiritual items.
In text messages between Ayodele and Adelabu, the cleric was said to have requested that the minister provide 24 APC flags for prayers. He also demanded 1,000 pieces of saxophones/trumpets — valued at N50 million for Nigerian fairly-used items or N130 million for imported grade-one versions from China.
Ayodele initially asked Adelabu to supply the items by April 1, later extending the date to April 4.
“Sir, I don’t do this, but because of the love I have for you,” the primate wrote.
The cleric added that he had previously sent several letters to Adelabu during his time as CBN deputy governor and later as minister in Ibadan, but received no response. He made repeated attempts to speak with the minister, who informed him he was on pilgrimage. At some point, Ayodele asked him to “recite almu nasira 200 times”.
Ayodele insisted that his actions were based on divine instruction and told Adelabu several times that he would rule Oyo state.
“I have divine advice for you sir, which can help a lot sir, kindly pick my call,” one message read.
“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.”
In response, Adelabu told the cleric he could not afford the expensive items.
After their exchanges, Ayodele declared in his church that Adelabu had failed and would not become Oyo governor. He was said the minister had made mistakes and his earlier message was a “warning from God”. He also dared Adelabu to arrest or sue him.
In his petition to the DSS, Adelabu said he rejected Ayodele’s requests because his political ambition is rooted in genuine service, not “spiritual manipulation or fetish practices”.
The minister urged the DSS to investigate Ayodele and compel him to retract his “false prophecies” and tender a written apology.
“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… whose actions have become not only personally distressing… but also capable of disturbing public peace and undermining the integrity of the political process in Oyo State,” the petition reads.
“Since his tenure as the Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)… he had persistently approached him with unsolicited offers of ‘spiritual intercession’… demanding huge sums of money and expensive spiritual items… cumulatively amounting to over N150 million…”
Adelabu said Ayodele began spreading “malicious and false prophecies” after he refused to comply.
“He has gone as far as declaring… that ‘God told him he will not win the election’… and made more provocative statements suggesting that he would fail because of his association with the ‘Èmi Lòkan’ slogan…”
The minister asked the DSS to investigate Ayodele for “extortion, blackmail, and deliberate dissemination of false and inciting information” and to ensure he is held accountable under the law.
He also filed a petition before the Oyo state commissioner of police, accusing the cleric of “extortive and inciting activities”.
PRIMATE AYODELE DENIES ALLEGATIONS
But in a statement signed by his media aide, Osho Oluwatosin, Primate Ayodele denied ever attempting to extort the minister of the said amount, explaining that he never asked him to send money apart from procuring the trumpets, which he said were for the minister’s good.
The cleric explained that the minister himself asked for the cost, and he provided a figure while asking Adelabu to send someone from his end to the market to confirm the prices of the instruments.
Ayodele stated that aside from Adelabu, two other persons, including his personal assistant, were pressurising him because the minister was showing serious desperation for the governorship seat in Oyo State.
According to Ayodele: “I didn’t ask Bayo Adelabu to bring money for prayers, I told him to ask someone from his end to go to the market and find out how much the said trumpet cost, while someone follows them from my end too. His personal assistant, himself, and the person he sent to me put me under so much pressure because he was desperate for governorship.”
“He was the one who sent someone to me to talk to me on his behalf. He went as far as saying he was willing to give anything to become the next governor of Oyo State, and the only thing I told him is to get the trumpets for his own good.”
Speaking further on their discussion, Primate Ayodele explained that he told Adelabu that they would not be willing to give him the governorship ticket, but that he could seek the mercy of God by buying the musical instruments—not necessarily for his church—which he refused. Beyond that, there was no other discussion.
“I told him that they won’t want to give him the governorship ticket, but if he wants it so bad, he should seek the mercy of God by buying the musical instruments for God, not even for my church, but he said he can’t do it, that’s all,” he said.
Primate Ayodele stated that for years he had spoken about Bayo Adelabu’s ambition and consistently maintained that it would take the grace of God for him to become governor of Oyo State. Therefore, he argued, it could not have been because the minister refused to yield, as he had never spoken to him until Adelabu sent people to him.
He said: “I have been talking about how he won’t be made governor of Oyo State for years; this is why he called me to seek solutions. I have never spoken to him before till he sent people to me and personally requested my spiritual help. I don’t make prophecies to make money, I am blessed already, and my subsequent prophecies after our discussion about his ambition aren’t because he failed to buy the musical instrument, it can never be.”