The High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Abuja has ordered the First City Monument Bank to pay Pastor Emmanuel Omale and his wife Deborah the sum of 540.5 million naira as damages.

Emmanuel who is the pastor of Divine Hand of God Prophetic Ministry was found to have been falsely accused of laundering money for Ibrahim Magu, the former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) while investing Magu, revealed that he paid N573m into Omale’s church account. The said money was allegedly used to purchase a property in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE

Justice Yusuf Halilu, in his judgement on Tuesday, noted that before the court was evidence that the bank has admitted to have wrongly reflected the credit entry in the church account by its recently upgraded reporting system. This was contained in the bank’s report to the NFIU.

Channels Television quotes the judge as saying that the error brought incalculable damage to the reputation of the church, the pastor and his wife both locally and internationally. He also said that the claimants had enough evidence to prove a case of negligence against the defendant.

The judge went ahead to award N200m as aggravated damages; N140,500,000 as specific damages and N200m as general damages, Channels reported.