Corruption in the House of God: Fraud allegation rocks United Evangelical Church, Uyo
• Resident Pastor Fingered
• Gov. Emmanuel Orders Investigation
A large scale frauds running into several millions of Naira had been uncovered at the United Evangelical Church, Four Towns, on Abak Road, near Mechanic Village.
Investigation conducted by our reporter on the issue revealed that the resident pastor, Rev. Chris Effiong, had been fingered in connection with the unprecedented fraud.
According to findings, the embezzled money were donations made by Governor Udom Emmanuel on separate occasions toward the building of a new structure for the church as the old one is fast aging and outdated.
Apart from embezzling the governor’s donations which was put at about 100 million, the Judas pastor was also said to have allegedly pocketed several millions being donations made by contractors, public office holders and notable politicians who accompanied the governor to the fund launch organized by the church which have been held twice so far, between last year and this year.
It was gathered that Rev. Chris Effiong during an investigation by the hierarchy of the church has completed a storey for himself located in a choice site in Uyo, the state capital. While the second one, a bungalow, was also in progress in another location.
Stunned by this development, the authority of the church via a committee set up to handle the church building project summoned the pastor but he reportedly rebuffed the invitation and stayed away from the meeting without any concrete reason.
Few weeks after, he (Chris) managed to emerge from his hide out and made straight to church on a Sunday to carry out his official duty as a pastor, a development that stoked crises inside the church auditorium as members insisted that he must not preach to them after defrauding the church of such a large sum of money.
Serious fracas was said to have ensued as members embarked on war of words hauling curses and throwing tantrums on the pastor, a situation which led to an abrupt end of the church service penultimate week.
Our investigations further revealed that on several occasions, Rev. Chris Effiong had issued threats to life on members if the cat was led out of the bag.
Before now, members of the church are known to have stopped paying their tithes and offerings for fear of another rounds of embezzlement by the embattled resident pastor, who, sources disclosed is very unruffled, boasting openly that nothing will happen on the matter afterall, as the pastor in charge, he has the right to feed on proceeds from the vineyard, no matter, whose ox is gored.
While members of the church have threatened to abandon the four towns branch of the church, if the pastor is not sacked, the irate pastor is said to be running from pillar to pole trying to lobby the area and national authorities of the United Evangelical to shield him from being disgraced out of office by the aggrieved members who are bent in ensuring that the Pastor does not spend a day longer in that station.
The district superintendent of the church, Mr. Udeme Akpan, who, members promptly exonerated from the uncovered frauds, refused to make any concrete statement, only telling this reporter that the matter had been resolved amicably.
Although his mood was somehow gloomy when our reporter first put the question, he later organized himself and spoke in defense of his church which he said, he has served in many capacities in the past 44 years spanning across all nocks and crannies of Nigeria.
The story was not the same with the church money loving pastor who came out of his residence bluffy and unperturbed when our reporter went to get his own side of the story on the matter.
Eventhough it was drizzling hard, pastor Effiong had locked his varenda burglary proof and chosed to come out through his carage to talk to this reporter.
Looking loquacious and unrepentant, Rev. Chris Effiong answered my first question with a threat.
Hear a pastor “why are you people always interested in going after negativity”. Look, let me counsel you on this matter do you know that anything you report negatively about this project will embarrass the governor”?
Feigning ignorance about the allegations, pastor Chris who retorted and immediately wear the look of a bully, throw back a question on me, asking me who told me there was crises and fraud in the church and mentioned his name in connection with it.
Denying the allegations in its entirety, Chris described it as an handiwork of some few disgruntled elements in his church who are jealous and unhappy with his steady rise in God’s vineyard.
He denied ever having anything to do with the said donations from the state governor or any other individual, describing the allegations as baseless and unfounded.
Asked why his church members want him sacked or redeployed from Four Towns Area, Chris claimed that those who are saying that are his sworn enemies adding that, enemies abound everywhere including the church.
Pastor Chris Effiong also denied ever having two houses presently admitting that he has only a house which he built about 6 years ago but not with looted proceeds.
As at the time this report was filed over the weekend, the new building which sources said Governor Emmanuel has sunk in so much money as a member, board of trustees, had not near decking level. Weeds have set in while white ants were seen busy having a field day with the planks, polines and allied building materials which have been abandoned alongside the entire structure for some months now-due to lack of funding.
Meanwhile, very reliable but unconfirmed report told this paper that Governor Emmanuel has ordered a full scale investigations into the alleged frauds.
