Bishop Oyedepo In Fresh Storm Of Controvery

At about 8:15pm on 8 September, Bishop David Oyedepo, founder of Living Faith Church Worldwide, alias Winners’ Chapel, was in Abeokuta to meet with Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State. The meeting was facilitated by former president Olusegun Obasanjo, whom Oyedepo contacted to reach out to Amosun. The governor was said to be seething over the latest controversy involving Oyedepo and his church.

Two days earlier, some members of the church assaulted a team of  officials of the Ogun State Ministry Of Urban and Physical Planning, who had gone to the church’s headquarters in Ota to serve building inspection notices, as well as two journalists attached to Ogun State Television.

 

Peter Falomo, a reporter, and Lekan Egunjobi, a cameraman, were the worst hit. A statement issued by Alhaji Yusuph Olaniyonu, Ogun State Commisioner for Information and Strategy, said the journalists were savagely beaten, their camera seized, the recording deleted and the camera damaged before it was released. Olaniyonu alleged that Oyedepo was  present, watching the assault as though it was a spectator sport. “The assault was witnessed by the Head Pastor of the Church, Bishop David Oyedepo, who equally was visibly angry at the decision of the officials to attempt to carry out their statutory duties in his church premises,” said Olaniyonu. The commissioner added that Oyedepo repeatedly spewed insults at the officials and asked why they imagined they had the licence to regulate building of structures for commercial purposes in his church premises.

Aside from the journalists, two officials of the ministry were also wounded by church members, who denied the team access to the church premises. The victims were taken to the General Hospital in Ota, where they were treated and subsequently discharged. The church authorities are said to have severally ignored invitations to meetings of the Stakeholders Forum, set up by the government, for organisations in the state to discuss with the government issues like physical planning and taxation regulations.

General Manager, Ogun State Urban and Physical Planning Board, Mr. Stephen Adewolu, who led the team of officials, accused the church authorities of acting as though they were above the law. “No organisation can carry on as if it is above the law. We have information that the people in that church are just building structures indiscriminately without building approval, without necessary environmental impact assessment reports and they are violating planning laws and regulations,” Adewolu said.

It was the second assault on government officials by Oyedepo’s followers in as many days. A day before, officials of the Ogun State Internal Revenue Service, OGIRS, who visited the church premises to effect the payment of outstanding taxes were similarly attacked. According to officials of the agency, the outstanding taxes, which cover a seven-year period, are owed by Kingdom Heritage Nursery School, owned by Oyedepo’s church and located within its headquarters. The tax owed is put at less than N2 million. “What they owe is below two million naira. It is from 2003 to 2010. We have sent several notices to them. The first one was in 2010, followed by that of 2011 and the last was in May 2013. Our men were explaining to them when some personnel, including their legal officer and accountant, came out and in the course of discussion, our men were beaten blue black and our equipment were destroyed,” explained OGIRS Chairman, Mr. Jide Odubanjo.

At a press conference a day after the assault, the state government showed a video of the attack on OGIRS officials and subsequent detention of journalists for three hours by staff of the school. The video was recorded on the sly by a government official with a mobile phone and later downloaded on DVD. The detained staff were released following the intervention of the Divisional Police Officer of Onipanu in Ota Division. Odubanjo said the service is legally empowered to access and inspect financial records in the premises of any business located within the state. He explained that the recent inspection was part of the government’s drive to ensure compliance with tax laws and enforcement efforts. Odubanjo added that the visit to the church’s headquarters became necessary in view of the fact that the authorities of the church had ignored reminders to pay up.

Muyiwa Adejobi, Public Relations Officer of the Ogun State Police Command, said the matter will be investigated. Ogun State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mrs. Abimbola Akeredolu, said her ministry is studying the facts on the two incidents with a view to fashioning an appropriate legal response.

Before the meeting with Oyedepo, Amosun was said to have met with some key officials of his government, including heads of law enforcement agencies, and taken a decision to seal off the premises of the church last Monday. The decision was, however, leaked to the church, a development that pushed Oyedepo to seek Obasanjo’s assistance in getting through to the governor.

At the meeting with Oyedepo, said sources, Amosun did not conceal his disgust at the conduct of Oyedepo’s followers. A source at the meeting said Oyedepo pleaded for leniency, but the governor said the church must pick the hospital bills of the victims and replace all the damaged equipment. The governor was also said to have insisted that law must take its course in the matter.

Sources told TheNEWS that five of those involved in the attack on government officials have been arrested by the police and may be slammed with charges based on their statements to the police.

“Without prejudice to the facts on ground and with the video evidence we have just watched, they may likely be charged for false imprisonment and assault,” said Akeredolu, Commissioner for Justice.

When TheNEWS visited the church’s headquarters, a pastor that refused to give his name confirmed that Oyedepo met with the governor. He explained that the preacher agreed to pick the medical bills of the victims and pay for the damaged equipment. He also said church officials involved in the violence will be sanctioned on release from police detention. The pastor, however, denied the government’s claim that Oyedepo was present when government officials were being molested and branded the authors of such claim as mischievous.

But a regional pastor, who prefers to be anonymous, told this medium that church officials that attacked OGIRS officials did so based on the conviction that the church has been sensitive to the needs of its host community and is thus entitled to a tax-exempt status. He said this was conveyed to OGIRS officials who, rightly, were unimpressed.

Just like the Ogun State government, the British authorities have also developed an interest in Oyedepo, whose church in Britain has received an estimated £16 million in tithes from followers between 2008 and 2013. Of this sum, according to a recent report in The Guardian of London, over £1 million has been funnelled into the church’s operation in Nigeria, the reason for which the Charity Commission of England and Wales is scrutinising the church’s finances. The commission is a non-ministerial department that functions as the regulator and registrar of charities in England and Wales. Last month, The Guardian reported that the Charity Commission was investigating allegations that charitable funds that accrued to Oyedepo’s church have been misapplied.

The commission is looking into two Christian charities connected to Oyedepo, estimated by Forbes to be worth $150 million, over concerns about misapplication of charitable funds and conflicts of interest.

World Mission Agency, the church’s charity vehicle, registered with the commission in 2001 and lists its objectives as the proclamation and advancement of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Its 2011 accounts list Pastor David Oyedepo Jnr, the preacher’s son, as its chief executive.