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How fake pastors defraud passengers at parks

Begging for alms has taken a new dimension, as fresh strategies are being deployed by people who have modernised the art under the cloak of religion.  ENCOMIUM Weekly’s investigation revealed that a lot of mobile evangelists and pastors have invaded several motor parks and garages using their ‘spiritual prowess’ to beg for alms systematically.  Interestingly,  we gathered that some of this mobile preachers make an average of N2,500 or N5,000  per day depending on the number of trips they make, and that some net N50,000 in a month. We gathered they resume work as early as 8 am and close around 4pm.
Few weeks back, passengers had boarded a bus from the popular Ojota Park enroute Ekiti. A short prayer was quickly rendered by a volunteer and everybody in the bus chorused an “Amen!” rhythmically. As the bus approached the prayer city of Mountain of Fire and Miracle Ministry along Lagos-Ibadan expressway, a passenger stood up and introduced himself as a pastor. Soon he burst into a worship song and within minutes, he was giving a short message. As if in a trance, he started dishing out some prayer points in which most of the passengers joined in as they responded to the prayers most passionately.

Fake pastor preaching in the bus
One of the fake pastors preaching in the bus

After the session, the man brought out some envelopes, passed them round the passengers, explaining that it is meant to support the ministry. Some passengers donated generously to his ministry. However, as the bus approached Sagamu, the man informed the driver that he was getting off. He alighted soon at the old Sagamu toll gate and went his way.
One of the passengers who had not been too keen about the pastor suddenly spoke up. “Do you people know that this is not the first time that man is doing this? He uses the name of the Lord to beg. He comes on the bus in the guise of pastor and after collecting money from emotionally frail travellers, he gets off at Sagamu”.
Those who had given him some money could only grumble while one of the passengers said: “I leave everything to God”.
We also encountered a mobile evangelist at Ogba (Ikeja, Lagos) garage in a bus going to CMS, Lagos.  He stood up, led praise and worship and began with a powerful motivational preaching. After the message, he gave a prayer point that those who are bent on frustrating your destiny will be consumed by Holy Ghost fire. People prayed with aggression. Afterwards, he brought out some brown envelopes and gave to passengers to sow into the ministry. The seeds, according to him, will empower them to receive favour from God and man. Interestingly, people gave generously.
On our way back from Obalende to Ogba, another mobile preacher who claimed he was out to seek alms on behalf of the less privileged gave a horror account of how some people confessed during  their prayer sessions on how they use diabolical means to destroy destinies. He then gave a testimony that he was an illiterate who had never been to the four walls of any school. He was living from hand to mouth. One day he had an encounter with God in his dreams and since then he discovered he could speak English very well. Most people were moved by his testimony. He said God has now been so good to him and that he was not a beggar but came out to solicit help for some less privileged children who are at the brink of death. Immediately, many people gave generously with the least amount being N100.
ENCOMIUM Weekly’s check revealed that some of them do not go with the buses but have made the parks their offices. They are called prayer merchants.  They are mostly at garages where interstate vehicles are positioned.
At Ojota (Lagos), there is a mobile pastor whose job is to locate any bus that is about to take off. He would pray for the passengers and assure them of safe journey. Afterwards, he will demand for alms and most people who are incurably religious will quickly dash him alms.
Sadly, this practice is very rampant nowadays at bus stops and garages. Many Nigerians have come to realise that this is just another way of begging for alms; as they describe it as begging in the name of God.

Smart alecs device fresh ways of begging
Interestingly, beggars have also devised new means of exhorting innocent Nigerians.
Another way, some characters have perfected the art of begging is now posing as corporate men and women at bus-stops on residential areas. Unsuspecting pedestrians or shop owners are spotted, targeted and walked up to by this decently dressed men and women. When the victim’s attention had been drawn, the corporate schemers begin a pathetic story that would make his victim give away his or her money.
A source narrated his experience with one of such beggars. He clamed that he was accosted by a man who was well dressed as a banker.
“He was well dressed in a blazer; he walked up to me and told me he had lost his wallet. I felt sorry for him because he was looking so good. In fact, I respected him so much that I had to give him N1000. Shockingly, some days later to my surprise, I saw this man again in another nice outfit giving the same lies to another person. He looked so convincing. I later realised that this is his profession. He begs for a living and if you go to Ikeja today, and just hang around for a while, he might come to you.”
Apart from the familiar physically-challenged people that are traditionally known to solicit alms in the city, other shades of beggars are beginning to emerge. They are called corporate beggars.
This class of beggars operate on an individually and they seem to pick their targets by some traits they see in them. It could be the kind of cars they drive, the neighbourhood where they live or the kind of clothes they wear.
These corporate beggars operate in and around offices, churches, shopping malls, road sides and familiar neighbourhoods.
Investigations revealed that they come in two categories: those that are not ready to work but are looking for easy ways to earn a living; and those who lost their jobs and have relatives to take care of.
It is also common to see women, normally backing their babies, often well dressed, also asking for financial assistance at bus stops, especially in the morning and evening, to either buy baby food or as transport fare.
From CMS, Victoria Island, Lekki to Obalende, Ikeja and Yaba, these beggars operate without scruples.
With the presence of the first category, it becomes difficult for kind-hearted Lagosians who might want to help those in the second category to do so. The reason for this is that the potential Good Samaritans may think the beggars are all the same.
However, those who are moved by the stories of woe of either of the classes demonstrate kind gestures by giving them money. Some of the beggars complain of being stranded and  not having enough money for transportation to their homes after visiting imaginary relations in far away locations.
Others wave medical reports or drug prescription lists at their ‘victims’, begging profusely that they need money to purchase drugs for their ailing relations. In most cases, it is for their children. And those children would have just undergone one form of surgery or the other. For those who normally beg for transport fares, part of the trick is to exaggerate the distance in order to draw sympathy from the public.
A Yaba based resident, Mr. ThankGod Ijeh, narrating his experience with a beggar at Yaba, said he was approached by a well-dressed young man who spoke flawless English, begging for transport fare.
He stated, “He told me that he came all the way from Ikorodu to Yaba, to visit a relation but missed him narrowly, and that he did not have enough money to go back to Ikorodu.
“I asked him the exact amount he needed and he said N500. I calculated it and I discovered he needed between N350 and N400. Though I never believed his tale, I gave him only N200.”
While Ijeh was kind enough to part with N200, Mr. Fatai Olusayo had a different experience.
Olusayo, who lives at New Oko Oba area of Lagos, recalled an encounter he had with a female corporate beggar recently. The woman’s deceitful streak was unveiled by him. He said, “I was busy in my workshop when I noticed a middle-aged woman who clutched a polythene bag, dressed in ankara, advance toward me. I had thought she was about to ask for directions to where she was headed.
“But I was surprised when she said she was on her way to Agbado and she had no money on her, that I should assist her with money.
“Since I believe in alms giving as a Muslim, I gave N150, knowing that the amount would take her from that point to Agbado. She thanked me and left.”
But Olusayo was surprised to see the same woman the next day, still relating the same story to another would-be ‘victim.’ He raised the alarm, which removed the scale of deceit from the woman’s eyes. Olusayo explains that he and others who had gathered warned her never to ply her trade in their territory any longer.

-FEMI OYEWALE

Encomium

Written by Encomium

A media, tech and events company.

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