Bayo Adelabu, minister of power, has accused Primate Elijah Ayodele, founder and head of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Oke Afa, Lagos, of blackmail and attempting to extort N150 million from him for “spiritual intercession” to make him governor of Oyo state.City & Local Guides
Adelabu, a former governorship candidate, has declared his intention to contest the 2027 Oyo governorship election.
In a petition dated October 13, 2025, signed by Bolaji Tunji, the minister’s special adviser on strategic communications and media relations, to the director-general of the Department of State Services (DSS), Adelabu accused Ayodele of making false prophecies intended to malign his reputation after he rebuffed all efforts from the cleric, who allegedly demanded a huge sum of money and expensive spiritual items.
’IT’S AN INSTRUCTION FROM GOD’
In a series of text messages between Ayodele and Adelabu, seen by TheCable, the cleric asked the minister to bring 24 APC flags for prayers. The cleric also demanded 1,000 pieces of saxophones/trumpets, with the least expensive Nigerian fairly-used grade costing a total of N50 million and the imported grade-one from China at N130 million in total.
Ayodele asked Adelabu to bring the items by April 1. He later extended the grace till April 4.
“Sir, I don’t do this, but because of the love I have for you,” the primate wrote.
The cleric told the minister that he had sent him several letters while he was CBN deputy governor and other times to the minister in Ibadan, but there was no reply. He repeatedly made requests to call the minister, who told him he was on pilgrimage. Ayodele asked him 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.
”I have divine advice for you sir, which can help a lot sir, kindly pick my call,” a part of the text 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, the minister told the cleric that he could not afford the expensive items.
After the incident, Ayodele, while speaking in his church, said Adelabu had failed and would not become Oyo governor.
In some video clips seen by TheCable, Ayodele said Adelabu had made mistakes and his message to the minister was a “warning from God”.
The cleric dared the minister to arrest or sue him.
ADELABU: MY POLITICAL AMBITION DRIVEN BY GENUINE SERVICE, NOT BY SPIRITUAL MANIPULATION
In the petition to the DSS, Adelabu said he rejected Ayodele’s requests because he believes his ambition is driven by genuine service and not by spiritual manipulation or fetish practices.
The minister asked the DSS to investigate Ayodele and compel him to retract his “false prophecies” and apologise.
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,” the petition reads.
“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.