Dr. David Oyedepo shocked members of his 15,000-seat Winners Chaple when he revealed, unequivocally, that some fat rats had looted the treasury of the “house” of God that is his church.
Oyedepo, who is Presiding Bishop of the church, said the fat rats meaning the officials, mainly accountants, had been sacked although he did not say whether the church would seek retributive justice in the court of the land or not.
He reportedly made the revelation at the empowerment summit organised for ordained workers of the church on Saturday, with the story going viral since then.
“Can you imagine accountants perpetrating fraud in the house of God?”, the angry bishop said.
“We had no choice but to dismiss them. You can imagine top church officials engaging in doubling figures and other dubious practices.
“Even after we dismissed them, we discovered more fraud.
“Those who should discover the fraud were the ones involved in it. One of them refused to confess until the last minute.”
He admonished the church members against employing the dismissed officials. He said he had to tell everyone present because he knew the dismissed officials “will come to you for employment.”
“Don’t employ them and don’t sympathise with them. Whoever sympathises with the wicked is wicked himself.”
Dead silence fell on the gathering as the Bishop reiterated: “Don’t sympathise with any perpetrator of fraud, otherwise you are a partaker of the evil act.”
Oyedepo did not disclose the volume of money stolen by the church rats, but newspaper reports assumed it must be in millions to provoke his anger. This further subjected his claim to public scrutiny as tongues now wag asking questions yet to be answered.
However, his critic, Daddy Freeze, is not shedding any tear for him. In an Instagram post, Freeze refers Oyedepo to the scriptures, asking if the missing money came from the sweat of Oyedepo or whether it is a donation.
“This to me, is nothing more than a daunting cocktail of scriptural misinterpretation, misplaced priorities and misdirected resources, making this seem like it’s an odd in between compromise amidst a church and a business enterprise.
“For starters, the church building is NOT the house of God (the scriptures in acts 17:24 clearly tell us so)!
“Is money they stole money you worked for from your personal business enterprises? If yes they should face the wrath of the law.
“However, If it came from donations, let Acts 4:32 guide you. According to the aforementioned verse, the disciples shared everything equally, so there was no lack. Could it be that you haven’t been giving them their share and they now took it by force?
“Remember, the offertory the early church received was shared equally among ALL believers, maybe if you practice that, you won’t fret over accountants pilfering.
Acts 17:24 New Living Translation: “He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples,
Acts 7:48 New Living Translation: However, the Most High doesn’t live in temples made by human hands. As the prophet says,
2 Corinthians 5:1 New International Version: For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.
The DEFENDER’s checks revealed Oyedepo as a leading religious leader, who hangs misbehaviour of every corrupt official of state and politician on President Muhammadu Buhari but who is now screaming at just little fraud done to his acclaimed “house” of God because he does not want to take responsibility for the crime.
“If we must go by his attitude towards government, the millions he claims was stollen by officials of his church should be seen as stolen by him because he is the leader.
“Another reason being that he is silent about what becomes the fate of the alleged culprits who he said had been sacked without mentioning whether they will be arrested and charged to court or not. We can therefore be right to say that he tolerates corruption,” a respondent said.
