Winners Chapel New York Under Investigation for Forgery, Identity Theft
Headlines, Religion Sunday, March 10th, 2013This is not the best of times for the Living Faith Church (Winners
chapel in New York as US authority is beaming searchlights on the
church’s activities over alleged bank forgery and identity theft.
The investigation is sequel to a petition written by the founding
pastor of the New York church, Pastor Olakunle Onaleye who has
been having issues with Bishop Oyedepo and the leadership of the
church in Nigeria for failing to comply with their orders.
In the petition, Onaleye alleged Identity theft, Money laundering and
immigration frauds.
Pastor Onaleye in an exclusive interview with African Examiner said
after he registered the New York church without any financial
support from the headquarters, he was then chased away from the
church by Bishop Oyedepo’s emissaries — senior pastors, who
came to New York to forcefully hijack the church and enforce the
Bishop directives.
According to him, Bishop Oyedepo did not send him to the US to
establish the church stressing that he came to America through the
green card lottery in which Oyedepo himself has preached against
in the past describing it as “modern day slavery.”
Because the Bishop did not believe in the green card lottery,
Onalaye stated that the headquarters did not support his relocation
to the US, noting that he came on his own, registered the church
with his money but when the church began to make money, they
became interested.
“They (headquarters) borrowed $31,000 from me; they said they
wanted to use it to repair their aircraft in Houston, Texas.
“They returned only $15,000. The problem then started when I
asked them to return the balance of the money they borrowed that
is all I said, but what I will hear is that Bishop Oyedepo called me to
say, in his usual anger, “Onaleye, I hear you want to report to
government go ahead, you are playing with your destiny.” Onaleye
explained.
After the threat, the Bishop sent his senior pastors to New York to
hijack the church. And without his consent, they took over the
church’s bank account, changed the account’s mailing address and
now operate the church bank account in which Onaleye is the sole
signatory.
As a result of this apparent fraud Onaleye said, “the New York
Police told me to go and ask Bank of America, how did the people
get into the account that I’m the sole signatory and how did they
change the mailing address of the account and who authorized it.”
He continued “These are the things that even Bank of America can’t
explain and they are carrying out their own investigation now for the
past one month.
“These are part of what I am saying that they are fraudulent people.
I entered a bank recently to open an account, when they ran my
information; they asked me if I’m affiliated to a church that has to do
with credit cards?
“Investigation is going on at the highest level and I have written to
the government about the issues.
“They have some people who are fraudulent in that church, some of
them went to jail when I left the church in New York. I know the
extent they can go.”
According to Onaleye, before he was chased away from the church,
Bishop Oyedepo had told him that some members are complaining
that his messages are injurious.
His words: “I was only preaching against credit card frauds and
womanizing in the church and because he (Bishop) is looking at the
number of people that bring money to the church, he told me my
message was injurious, and I said they were not, and that he should
go and listen to my messages.”
Pastor Onaleye has since left the church to establish a new one,
Conquest Church Worldwide at Queens in New York but wanted the
authority to ensure that the winners chapel, New York is not using
his personal information for credit card frauds, money laundering
and immigration frauds.
All efforts to get both Winners Chapel New York and Nigeria to react
to the allegations are unsuccessful.
-African Examinerwp_posts
Related Posts
- Tinubu urges Southeast politicians to emulate late Michael Okpara’s politics
- Rivers Gov. Fubara, returns from suspension, dissolves cabinet, sacks political appointees
- Nigeria @65: 12 major achievements Tinubu highlighted in Independence Day speech
- Kukah, Sultan, Obasanjo raise alarm on Nigeria’s future
- Police to begin full enforcement of tinted glass permit nationwide from October 2, 2025
Short URL: https://newnigerianpolitics.com/?p=29254