When God revealed it to the presiding pastor (Pastor and church’s
identities withheld) of one of the Pentecostal churches in Ogba area of
Lagos to organize a week long crusade last December, the man of God
must have probably anticipated that God was planning to perform major
miracles that would catapult his ministry to the next level.
Indeed, miracles were not in short supplies at the crusade. However,
the supposed miracles, as it turned out, have little or nothing to do
with the church beyond the fact of the church being the host of the
crusade where the ‘wonders’ took place.
As it appears, God has only decided to use the church in question as
a base to launch an assault against the wolves who parade themselves in
sheep skin and to sanitize the Christendom which is being infiltrated
by impostors who fake miracles with the sole intention of deceiving
unsuspecting Christian faithful for selfish motive.
No fewer than four members of a syndicate which specializes in
stage-managing miracles in churches in the country are currently
squealing on some pastors of notable churches they work for in the
country as well as some of the miracles that they have conjured in
conjunction with their accomplices.
Undoubtedly, nothing short of a divine intervention would have been
responsible for the arrest of the suspects who are currently furnishing
the police with information about their modus operandi, past exploits
and their accomplices.
Sunday Sun reliably gathered that the church where the
miracles took place had organized a week long programme during which a
Ghanaian pastor (name withheld) was invited as a guest minister. The
Ghanaian pastor, it was learnt, ministered for most part of the
programmes during which a number of miracles was said to have taken
place.
The Ghanaian pastor, however, returned to Ghana a day before the last
day of the crusade while the host pastor carried on with the programme.
At the end of the programme,
Sunday Sun gathered that a man
and woman approached the host pastor from whom they requested to meet
the Ghanaian pastor who they thought was the real pastor of the church.
“They were shocked to discover that the Ghanaian pastor was only invited
to minister during the programme,” a source who craved anonymity
disclosed.
Having recovered from their shocks “they informed the host pastor
that the Ghanaian pastor hired them to stage-manage miracles that took
place during the programme and promised to pay them the sum of N250,000
which he never did before he left. They later demanded that the host
pastor pay them the said amount since their acts were staged in the
church, a demand the pastor declined, insisting he knew nothing about
it.”
Sunday Sun further learnt that the host pastor would later call the Ghanaian pastor who allegedly denied knowing or contracting the gang.
Confused by the turn of event, the host pastor called to inform one
of his friends, a pastor who advised him to report the matter to the
police since the people insisted they would not leave until they were
paid for the services they rendered. “So he pretended to play along with
them and succeeded in getting them arrested along with two other
suspects.
Among those arrested are two men who gave their names as Joshua
Ifeanyi and Kazeem Akinwale and two women who identified themselves as
Mary Arikawe and Kemi Adeniyi. The suspects who are currently being held
at the State Criminal Investigation Department, SCID Panti, Yaba,
Sunday Sun was
reliably informed are members of a syndicate which operates across the
country. “They have confessed to be members of a syndicate which
operates across the country. But those arrested so far are members of a
seven-member gang which operational base is the South-west zone. There
are other groups which operate in other zones in the country. The
South-west group is headed by an Ibadan-based woman simply identified as
Iya Ibo,”
Sunday Sun was informed.
Although the Ghanaian pastor denied knowing the group, his denial
appears not to hold water as it was gathered that the host pastor was
able to identify two of the suspects to include those who claimed to
have received miracles under the ministration of the Ghanaian pastor.
“One of the two men arrested was said to have been recognized by the
host pastor as the one who came to the crusade with POP around his neck,
which the Ghanaian pastor pulled off and got healed after he was prayed
for. And again one of the women was identified as the one whom the
pastor brought out from the congregation and revealed so many things
about her which she also affirmed as true during the programme. One of
the things he said about the woman is that her husband deserted her over
three years ago, a claim the woman said was true. He later prophesied
that her husband would return soon.”
Revealing their mode of operation, the suspects reportedly said
besides staging and being recipients of fake miracles, they also tried
to get information about people, their problem and gave to their
principals who would later relate to them during service as if he was
seeing visions or receiving revelation from God.
As at the last count no fewer than names of 10 persons who claimed to
be men of God had been mentioned. But a police source informed
Sunday Sun that
the police are still on the trail of other suspects while investigation
concerning pastors involved is still ongoing. “Cases such as this one
require extreme caution. That is why we are being meticulous about those
pastors that have been mentioned so far but I can assure you that
thorough investigation will be done on the case,” the source disclosed.
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