Pastor Frederick Ikyaan(left) with his wife: Admits the tithe was paid
In a country, where people steal mostly from the state and established multi-national companies, a Benue local church tolerated a N42 million tithe from a single man, whose identity has been shielded by the receiving Makurdi church.
The man’s gesture has shocked church members, leaving them only guessing as to who the giver could be.
The money was paid into the UBA account of the NKST Church (the Church of Christ Amongst the Tiv) High Level Makurdi, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) had scooped.
Although the pastor of the church, Dr. Frederick Ikyaan, initially denied knowledge of the offering, a copy of the church’s quarterly financial report, covering the months of January – March, confirmed the payment of N42million tithe to the church.
The report showed that the lodgement was the highest single offering from an individual for the quarter.
The money was paid into the church’s account in January.
The breakdown of the church’s financial report showed an income of N56.2 million and an expenditure of N33.7 million within the same time frame.
The church’s records also showed that out of the income, N44.6 million was generated from tithe offerings while a single person accounted for N42 million.
Reacting to the financial report, the pastor told NAN his initial denial was based on the allegations that the donor was an appointee of the Benue government.
” I still stand by my words that the person that gave us that money is not an appointee of the state government. In fact, he does not even stay in Benue but is an indigene of the state.”
He said there was nothing wrong with the offering and insisted that the church had nothing to hide.
Meanwhile, the tithe offering has stirred controversy in a state struggling to pay the salaries of workers.
Public discussion centred on the legitimacy of the donors income, as a man who pays N42m to a church as tithe must have made an income of N420 million in the month that he paid.
It is becoming increasingly worrisome that churches are taking money (tithe) from people they know or must know to have made money by engaging in criminal activity.
Churches have become billion Naira enterprises, still they care less for the poor as it is the case in western societies and other parts of the world.
CHECKPOINTCHARLEY finds it scandalous that this church in question took such money from the mystery man without demanding to know how he got such money. The truth is that there is no Benue man alive who makes N420 million monthly from legitimate enterprise. I stand to be corrected. In fact, it is a challenge to anyone who holds a contrary opinion.
Unfortunately we live in a country, where 90% of the so-called billionaires never made their money from any kind of ingenuity that could be ascribed to them or through industry. This is why the level of unemployment remains high. There are no industries and there are not much private employers of labour, yet the country is high on the list of countries with the highest number of private jet owners.
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