CITIZENS COMPASS—Pastor Folu Adeboye, the wife of the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye, has recounted how a former pastor of the church allegedly duped her to the tune of $8,000.
She said the amount was meant for church missions but unfortunately the pastor disappeared with it.
Mrs Adeboye said the pastor abandoned his wife in South Africa and moved to the United States, where he remarried.
Speaking at a men’s church programme, the pastor’s wife said the pastor, originally from Ekiti State, had been in charge of an RCCG parish in Cape Town, South Africa. During one of her visits to the city for a church mission, she was invited to minister at his parish.
However, she was shocked to find the service taking place in a small fast-food restaurant. While she was still preaching, a woman entered and began packing up chairs, signaling that the service time had ended.
Surprised by the lack of a proper worship space, Pastor Folu asked the pastor how much it would cost to start the process of acquiring land for a permanent church building. He estimated the cost at $8,000 and suggested a plan to buy a used car, which would be handed to a tourism company to generate income. The earnings, he explained, would be used to buy land for the church.
Trusting the idea, Pastor Folu gave him the funds. But instead of carrying out the plan, the pastor reportedly vanished. He left his wife behind in South Africa, relocated to the U.S., and married another woman.
“The woman she abandoned in South Africa is presently in a terrible state now, almost running mad,”
“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 encouraged the congregation to return to the values of the early church — faithfulness, obedience, and trust in God.
“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 urged.
Recalling the early days of Redemption City, RCCG’s global headquarters along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, she spoke about how they endured hardship and discomfort with joy.
“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 shared.
Her message was a call for reflection, repentance, and a return to godly values.
—GWG
