Adeboye silently settles former pastor who accused RCCG of corruption
The “battle” between Bayo Akinjiyan and the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) is over, latest developments show.
Akinjiyan was former provincial pastor at RCCG Province 25 in Lagos. When he resigned from the church, they refused to pay a sum of N2.1 million he said Christ the Redeemer’s College (CRC) supervised by Foluke, wife of general overseer Enoch Adeboye, owed him.
Akinjiyan also said he handed a house he built at Redemption Camp over to RCCG but they failed to acknowledge its receipt.
“The house was worth N60 million as at 2011,” Akinjiyan said during a press conference one month ago. “I feared the house may have fallen into the hands of corrupt church leaders.”
RCCG made no official comment after the press conference in which Akinjiyan said the church was filled with snakes and scorpions, and corrupt to the bone.
Akinjiyan spoke to the press in Lagos again on Friday. He said the church came clean.
“The fact that until now, there has been no official statement by RCCG in reaction to the issues raised in the media in the first place was an admission of all the facts placed before the public by the church,” the former RCCG pastor said.
“They knew what evil they did to me, but God turned it for my good. The only response to this came through a phone call five days after the press conference from the assistant general overseer (AGO, Admin & Personnel), Pastor J. F. Odesola, requesting for a meeting with me on behalf of Pastor Enoch A. Adeboye, the general overseer who he said was traveling out on ministerial assignment.
“I agreed to meet with him the following day at his house at Redemption Camp. At the meeting, he apologized on behalf of the general overseer for his inability to personally meet with me and his desire to resolve the matter amicably without recourse to the court of law.
“My immediate reaction was to ask if Pastor Adeboye was aware of all the letters earlier sent to him, an answer he (Odesola) could not give.
“He showed me a letter written by the church, acknowledging the transfer of our house at Plot 15 Diligence Road, Redemption camp to the church and a cheque of the value requested from Christ the Redeemer’s College (CRC) with an attached letter stating in part that the payment was made on ‘compassionate grounds’.
“My immediate reaction was to object to the letter as I was duly appointed by the Board of Governors of the college with documentary evidence and I discharged my duties diligently and responsibly and hence should be paid based on works and services rendered to the college.
“He promised to effect the change and he asked how he could further reach me on the issues, I directed him to get in touch with my lawyer for further discussions if need be.
“The meeting was witnessed by his wife and one of my godly seeds who requested that the church pay us compensation beyond just giving a letter of acknowledgement bearing in mind what we had been made to pass through.
“Pastor Odesola, who appeared more political than I used to know of him, was very warm to us and promised to communicate this to the general overseer.
“The legal department of the RCCG headed by one Titi Adegbile together with Pastor Odesola later turned the episode into a melodrama such as posting fallacious internal communications between them on the social media for reasons best known to them.
“A recent update from my lawyer indicated that he, the lawyer accepted the cheque for payment for my consultancy fees in exchange for my company’s official receipt No. 700 dated 22nd August 2016 for ‘Architectural consultancy services on CRC projects (2009-2012)’ a copy which was received and stamped by the legal department of the church while he signed for them that there will be no further litigation by either party and that it was paid on ‘compassionate’ grounds which he later explained was to save the face of the church having boxed themselves into a tight corner.
“My lawyer also received a cheque on the house according to the church as ex gratia payment ‘for the sake of the kingdom’, representing less than 15% of the present value of the property at Plot 15 Diligence Road Redemption Camp.
“With the church having accepted the reality on the ground by acceding to our demands, the issues hopefully have been laid to rest,” Akinjiyan said.
He, however, failed to state how much RCCG paid him for the house which he said was worth N60 million as at 2011. We estimate Akinjiyan would have been paid nothing less than nine million naira.
RCCG is yet to respond to the development.
