Social Media Boils As Video of a Nigerian Pastor Who Refused to Return N900,000 Sent To Him In Error, Claiming the Money Belongs to God Goes Viral

NIGERIA The social media landscape in Nigeria got a new cruise to catch over the last weekend as yet-to-be-identified Nigerian pastor allegedly refused to return N900,000 mistakenly transferred to his account by a church member.

The church member who posted the video that had since gone viral explained in his post that he accidentally transferred N1,000,000 to the pastor instead of an intended N100,000.

Upon realising the error, the church member immediately contacted the pastor, pleading for the return of the surplus N900,000.

However, the concerned pastor reportedly declined the request, insisting that the additional sum of money, being N900,000 was a gift from God and refused to return it.

The ugly development prompted the church member to involve law enforcement agents to retrieve his money from the pastor.

The now-viral video shows the church member inviting some policemen to the pastor’s house.

In the viral video, an officer, identified as belonging to the State Criminal Investigation Department (CID), was seen interrogating the pastor. 

An officer was heard introducing himself to the pastor, saying, “We are police officers from the state CID. Please, can we go into your house?”

After entering the house, the church member could be seen explaining to the pastor that he brought the police to his house not to embarrass him but to retrieve the excess money mistakenly transferred to the pastor.

“I brought them here because of the money I mistakenly transferred into your account; I was supposed to transfer N100,000 but I mistakenly transferred one million naira and since then, I have been asking you to refund me but you keep on telling me to go to God; that it is a spiritual matter. Now I have taken legal matter and have informed the police. It is not an embarrassment.”

As at the time of filing this report, Open Television Naija has not been able to verify the credibility of the video or fact-check it to be sure it is just not another skit, creatively put together as a prank video.

However, Open Television observes that the viral video has attracted public attention of netizend who have posted their reactions to the video online, with most of them berating the pastor. 

Some of the reactions are profiled below:

@Supabara_ tweeted, “See pandemonium"

@idofoi tweeted, “There is nowhere in the Bible where the pastor can reference this type of situation. This is what the gospel has turned to, and the pastor should spend some time in jail for this. The funny thing is gullible Nigerians will still go to his church today.”

@justkency tweeted, “He deserved to be scammed. Why is he sending money to the pastor?”

@iamovih tweeted, “There are lots of demons and monsters out there disguising as men of God; it’s very hard to identify them until you have a one-on-one encounter with them.”

@thefineoldsoul tweeted, “Na, you get 100k to give a fraudster before na. I will say this over and over that no pastor deserves your money except he works for it. When I say work not prayer. He come help lay foundation for your new building and you see am carry blocks for head. They are all con men. All.”

@BREAKOUTgOD tweeted, “When you refuse to pay your tithe appropriately, the Holy Spirit will confuse you into doing it …P.S. The money now belongs to God … pastor doesn’t have access to it… end of discussion"

@heisG3orge tweeted, “Shameless pastor, from his body movement you’ll know he’s fake…they go to church every Sunday to “preach the word of Christ,” meanwhile doing the exact opposite of what they are preaching.”

@joeerazer tweeted, “People across the globe watching the happenings in Nigeria will think most is scripted and tag it Nollywood. We at the homeland now absorb every shock we see on the daily trend due to the current impact, which has made us immune to unbelievable takes and sights. Nigeria must heal by force.” 

Watch the viral video here.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aBqNzHwkyXQ#bottom-sheet