EFCC recovers funds paid to RCCG
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Bénin Web TV
EFCC chairman Ola Olukoyede says Enoch Adeboye ordered the return of several billion nairas paid to the RCCG by a donor under financial investigation. The funds were eventually returned to the public treasury after the religious leader's intervention, according to Ola Olukoyede.
Pastor Enoch Adeboye, leader of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), ordered the return of a donation of several billion nairas after a financial investigation was flagged, the chairman of Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, said on Saturday 7 November before pastors and church staff in Lagos.
According to the EFCC chief's account, the investigation targeted a donor suspected of large-scale financial offences and part of the sums had been traced to projects and accounts linked to the RCCG. Informed of the case, Enoch Adeboye summoned several officials and asked them to return the money within 24 hours. Church officials had difficulty organising the repayment within that deadline, but the funds were eventually returned to the public treasury, Ola Olukoyede said, praising the religious leader's reaction.
The meeting was organised ahead of the RCCG's annual Holy Spirit congress. Invited to speak on financial probity, the EFCC chairman warned religious leaders against donations of unchecked origin and irregularities in the award of contracts. Enoch Adeboye assured in response that his church would protect no one involved in reprehensible financial practices and asked pastors to keep accounts free of any trace of corruption. The donor's name, the project concerned and the exact amount were not made public.
The EFCC chief's remarks came on the day the agency announced it had recovered 1,233 billion nairas in 34 months.
