Bishop Oyedepo inside his private jet

Bishop David Oyedepo of the Winners Chapel, Ota, is not happy with some of his accountants who have dipped their hands in the church’s kitty. Perhaps, they did not allow the “still, small voice” to prevail on them so that they could say, “get behind me Satan.” Rather, they followed the path of Judas Iscariot who, as the treasurer of Jesus and his disciples, stole their money or Achan who pilfered the commonwealth of Moses’ people, the  Hebrews, and met his comeuppance in the desert.

Oyedepo bellowed into the microphone during the empowerment summit for ordained workers of Winners on Saturday, 11 January: “Can you imagine accountants perpetrating fraud in the house of God? We had no choice but to dismiss them. You can imagine top church officials engaging in doubling figures and other dubious practices. Even after we dismissed them, we discovered more fraud. Those who should discover the fraud were the ones involved in it. One of them refused to confess until the last minute.

“Don’t employ them and don’t sympathise with them. Whoever sympathises with the wicked is wicked himself. Don’t sympathise with any perpetrator of fraud, otherwise you are a partaker of the evil act.”

As if he was expecting the man to make a statement, Daddy Freeze, arch critics of Nigerian Pastors, in an Instagram post, came out smoking: “This to me, is nothing more than a daunting cocktail of scriptural misinterpretation, misplaced priorities and misdirected resources, making this seem like it’s an odd in between compromise amidst a church and a business enterprise.

“For starters, the church building is NOT the house of God (the scriptures in acts 17:24 clearly tell us so)!

“Is money they stole money you worked for from your personal business enterprises? If yes they should face the wrath of the law.

“However, If it came from donations, let Acts 4:32 guide you. According to the aforementioned verse, the disciples shared everything equally, so there was no lack. Could it be that you haven’t been giving them their share and they now took it by force?

“Remember, the offertory the early church received was shared equally among ALL believers, maybe if you practice that, you won’t fret over accountants pilfering.

Acts 17:24 New Living Translation:“He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples,

Acts 7:48 New Living Translation: However, the Most High doesn’t live in temples made by human hands. As the prophet says,

2 Corinthians 5:1 New International Version: For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.”