A pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) has reportedly fled with $8,000 meant for church missions, abandoned his wife in South Africa, and remarried in the United States, according to Pastor Folu Adeboye, wife of the General Overseer, Pastor Enoch Adeboye.
Naijaonpoint reports that Pastor Folu made the startling revelation during her ministration at a men’s programme organised by the church, a video of which has gone viral.
Recounting the incident, she said the unnamed pastor, originally from Ekiti State, was stationed at an RCCG parish in Cape Town, South Africa.
During one of her missionary visits to the city, she was scheduled to preach at the parish but was shocked to find that the worship service was being held inside a fast-food eatery. While she was still ministering, a woman walked into the space and began packing up chairs, signalling the end of the permitted worship time.
Disturbed by the venue situation, Pastor Folu said she asked the pastor what it would cost to begin the process of acquiring a permanent worship site.
The pastor reportedly estimated $8,000, and then proposed an investment plan involving the purchase of a fairly used vehicle to be handed over to a local tourism company in South Africa. According to him, the proceeds would be reinvested to acquire land for the church.
Pastor Folu, impressed by what seemed like a strategic idea, provided the funds. However, instead of executing the plan, the pastor allegedly fled, leaving his wife behind in South Africa and relocating to the United States, where he eventually remarried.
Pastor Folu lamented the condition of the pastor’s wife, who she said is now in a mentally unstable state due to the betrayal and abandonment.
“The woman she abandoned in South Africa is presently in a terrible state now, almost running mad,” she said.
Addressing the men of the church during the programme, she issued a passionate appeal for a return to spiritual integrity and godly principles.
“RCCG men, what are we going to do? Are we going to continue with such a lying spirit, a deceitful spirit to the God of the kingdom?” she asked.
She called for a recommitment to righteousness, urging the congregation to return to the “old path” where believers followed Christ with unwavering commitment.
“We must go back to the old path where we look up to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. We must get to the point where we say wherever He leads, we follow,” she said.
Pastor Folu also reflected on the early days of Redemption City, the RCCG’s global headquarters located along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.
“We were in this bush. For three years, there was no light. We went back to the days of the lantern, and we were grinding with stone, whereas where we were coming from, we had grinding machines, we had washing machines,” she recalled.