A church run by a controversial multi-millionaire African preacher has been accused of โcynical exploitationโ after its British branch received ยฃ16.7โmillion in donations from followers who were told that God would give them riches in return.
Followers are ferried in double-decker shuttle buses to the church, handed slips inviting them to make debit card payments, and are even told obeying the ministryโs teachings will make them immune from illness.
Todayโs Mail on Sunday revelations about the Winnersโ Chapel movement have prompted the Charity Commission to review the charitable statusย of the church โ one of the fastest-growing in the UK.
Winnersโ Chapel is part of a worldwide empire of evangelical ministries run by Nigeriaโs wealthiest preacher David Oyedepo, who has an estimated ยฃ93โmillion fortune, a fleet of private jets and a Rolls-Royce Phantom.
Dubbed โThe Pastorpreneurโ, he was accused earlier this year of slapping the face of a young woman he said was a witch. The assault case was struck out but is being appealed.
Branches of the church have sprung up in major UK cities in a huge recruitment drive centred on Mr Oyedepoโs โprosperity gospelโ. This claims that congregants who make regular donations and pay tithes โ a ten per cent levy on their income โ will be rewarded financially by God.
Followers are urged to target vulnerable people such as the lonely, the sick, the homeless and the suicidal as potential candidates for conversion.
Last night, Labour MP Paul Flynn said Winnersโ Chapel was cynically exploiting supporters. โThey [Winnersโ Chapel] are making clearly spurious claims and it seems to be a cynical exploitation of the gullible,โ he said.
Referring to the slapping incident, Mr Flynn added: โWhat is also alarming is the reported violence and the lack of respect for the status of women. Itโs taking us back to a previous age of ignorance and prejudice that we all thought the church had escaped.โ
This newspaperโs investigation can further disclose:
Congregants are handed a payment slip requesting payments using cheque, cash or debit card when they enter Londonโs Winnersโ Chapel.
Donations to the ministry in England almost doubled from ยฃ2.21โmillion to ยฃ4.37โmillion between 2006 and 2010.
Mr Oyedepoโs superchurch in Nigeria received ยฃ794,000 or 73 per cent of the charitable donations paid out by the British Winnersโ Chapel between 2007 and 2010. This was despite claims in Africa that he is enriching himself at the expense of his devotees.
The registered charity has spent ยฃ6.81โmillion on evangelism and โpraise, worship and fellowshipโ.
The churchโs โJoseph Squadโ preaches in British prisons and has a weekly broadcast named โLiberation Hourโ on satellite and cable TV here.
In the past three years, Winnersโ Chapel churches have been established in Liverpool, Birmingham, Leeds and Bradford, adding to those in London, Manchester, Dublin and Glasgow.
An undercover Mail on Sunday reporter attended Sunday servicesย at Winnersโ Chapelโs โLondon HQโย in Dartford, Kent, which attracts 1,000 congregants โ chiefly African and Caribbean immigrants. It is run like โa business conferenceโ by Mr Oyedepoโs son, David Oyedepo Jnr. Packed buses deliver singing worshippers from South-East London, Essex and Kent to the huge auditorium.
The reporter saw a payment slip being given to every person entering the church encouraging them to donate money by cheque or cash or to fill in a form with their debit card details. The slip said tithes should be paid separately using a โKingdom Investment Bookletโ and the reporter was informed that payments could also be made by phone. A pastor told the worshippers: โYou shall be financially promoted after this service in Jesusโs name if you are ready to honour the Lord therefore with all your givings, your tithes, your offerings, your Kingdom investment, your sacrifices.โ
Congregants were told to fill in their slips and hold them above their heads while the donations were blessed.
The service was interspersed with testimonies. โI received a bill fromย the bank that I didnโt understand, so I prayed,โ said one congregant. โA few days later, the bank wrote to apologise for their mistake โ Hallelujah!โ โHallelujah,โ the audience shouted back.
Congregants were told they could gain favour by persuading others to follow Mr Oyedepoโs teachings. His son said: โLook around you. Someone is sick and already wishing he or she were dead, that is a fruit ripe to harvest. Someone is confounded and considering suicide as an option, that is another fruit that is ripe to harvest.
โSomeone else is lonely and wondering if there is any future for him, that is another fruit ripe to harvest.
โAlso there are many men and women, young and old that are homeless, these are fruits ripe to harvest.โ
The reporter was taken, with 20 other new recruits, to a room where preachers gave sermons claiming acceptance of the Lord would prevent them ever being ill or suffering misfortune.
The Mail on Sunday has seen video footage of Mr Oyedepo striking a woman across the face and condemning her to hell after she said she was a โwitch for Jesusโ. He attacked her in a Winnersโ Chapel superchurch, believed to be in Nigeria, in front of worshippers. A separate video shows him saying: โI slapped a witch here last year!โ
In May, he was sued for ยฃ800,000 over the alleged assault. The case was struck out โ a decision which is now reported to have been appealed.
The Winnersโ Chapel movement, also known as the Living Faith Church, has hundreds of churches in Nigeria and across Africa, the Middle East, the UK and the US.
Mr Oyedepo has received fierce criticism in Africa. One Nigerian journalist accused him of โleading a growing list of pastorpreneurs โ church founders exploiting the passion and emotion that Christianity commands to feather their nestsโ.
Catholic Cardinal Anthony Okogie criticised such preachers for placing materialism above Jesusโs message. He reportedly said: โThey have been skinning the flock, taking out of the milk of the flock.โ
Among Mr Oyedepoโs fleet of aircraft are said to be a Gulfstream 1 and Gulfstream 4 private jets. It is also claimed he and his wife, Faith, travel in expensive Jeeps flanked by convoys of siren-blaring vehicles. He is the senior pastor of Faith Tabernacle, a 50,000-seat auditorium in Lagos reputed to be the largest church in the world, and runs a publishing company that distributes books carrying his message across the world.
His other business interests span manufacturing, petrol stations,ย bakeries, water purification factories, recruitment, a university, restaurants, supermarkets and real estate. The latest addition is a commercial airline named Dominion Airlines.
A Charity Commission spokesman said: โThe Charity Commission isย currently assessing what, if any,ย regulatory role there is to play with regard to the complaints made against the World Mission Agency. It is important to clarify that this does not constitute an investigation at this stage.โ
Winnersโ Chapel administrator Tunde Disu declined to comment.
Source:Mail on Sunday
Billionaire Winners Chapel Pastor Accused of Exploiting Worshipers