THESE are the mega-rich messengers of God whose churches are raking in millions from their worshippers in some of the poorest parts of Britain.

Pastors Matthew Ashimolowo and Alex Omokudu live in sprawling seven-figure mansions while their huge congregations are told to hand over money often straight from their salaries.


Matthew Ashimolow's KICC makes £6.3million-a-year through worshippers donating from their salaries


Alex Omokudu's Victorious Pentecostal Assembly makes £1.1million-a-year in donations

Meanwhile, the preachers lead services in which it is claimed people have been cured of life-threatening illnesses - some of them on the spot.

The Sun found Omokudu continues to promote videos such as one claiming a young boy has been cured of cancer while the pastor places his hands on him. His church has been warned by authorities about potentially exploiting people with serious illnesses.

We witnessed worshippers being told "God wants you to give all your money to him" and warned about showing "disobedience to God" before being handed direct debit forms.

The pastors claim to share their wealth with those who need it but we can reveal the financial dealings which have seen them acquire lavish lifestyles most worshippers can only dream of.


Sun reporter Richard Wheatstone attended services at both churches (The church is based at a converted office block in a deprived area of Barking, East London)

Pastor 'with healing powers from God' lives in £2m mansion as deprived worshippers told 'give your money to Him'
Pastor Alex Omokudu claims to be "heavily anointed with healing powers from God" and his church takes more than £1million a year in donations from his devoted following.

Omokudu moved to the UK from Nigeria in 2002 and launched Victorious Pentecostal Assembly (VPA) three years later.

Today, the 53-year-old - who is called Daddy by his flock - owns a lavish £2million nine-bedroom mansion in leafy Hornchurch, Essex.

The lavish gated mansion includes five reception rooms, a swimming pool, a sauna and a 250ft garden.

He also owns a second £600,000 property a short distance away.

Despite his luxurious lifestyle, his website states: "My wealth belongs to the people, whatever I have I give out. People are suffering and need help."


He owns a £2million nine-bedroom mansion in Hornchurch, Essex


The plush mansion boasts a swimming pool and a sauna

Meanwhile, worshippers are effectively leaned on to empty their pockets to 'the God of VPA'.

The main church in Barking, East London, is attended by around 5,000 worshippers every week and lies within one of the most deprived areas in the UK.

VPA also operates in run-down parts of Birmingham, Manchester, Bradford and Luton.

Our reporter attended a service at VPA's Barking church and joined thousands of people repeatedly told: "Give your money to God to get ahead of others".

The service started with a number of testimonies of people claiming to have experienced miracles after praying to 'the God of VPA' and requests from those looking for help.

One teenager about to sit his A-level exams was told: "When you enter that exam hall, God will fill your head with the answers".

The church packs in around 5,000 worshippers a week


Our reporter saw worshippers told 'God wants you to give all your money to him' before being handed direct debit forms


The congregation was then read a passage from 2 Kings 4 in which a woman finds herself in debt and is told to collect empty containers from her neighbours which God fills with oil to sell.

"Give your money to God to get ahead of others... give your money to God to get ahead of others" repeats the pastor.

A number of similar phrases were repeated as the volume of the music grew slowly in the converted office block.

The pastor added: "God wants you to give all your money to Him.. give all your money to Him.

"There is no excuse not to give your money to God... he sees any money you have coming. You cannot hide money from God.

"The church of VPA and Pastor Alex Omokudu will deliver you prosperity."

As the music built to a crescendo, direct debit forms emerged - and worshippers were told to come to the front and "pay your tithes".

But while vowing to serve the congregation who hand over £1m-a-year, Omokudu also personally takes an annual £102,000 in rent for the church they worship in.

Matthew Ashimolwo, 65, launched Kingsway International Christian Centre in 1992 from a rented hall.

Twenty-five years later the church also has £16.4m in assets, £500,000 in the bank and rakes in more than £8m in revenue a year.

Videos show him asking his worshippers to place their hands on parts of their body where they are afflicted by diseases before saying "every sickness and disease in your body I command it to leave you" before telling them "you have no sicknesses and diseases".

KICC - which mainly operates in Walthamstow and the recently-acquired 'Prayer City' building in Chatham, Kent - takes £6.3m a year from tithing, where the congregation gives up 10 per cent of its salary.

The church also has an army of 1,000 volunteers who provide it with more than 300,000 hours of free labour, worth more than £2m-a-year.

But while claiming to 'pass on his riches' Ashimolowo - described as the church's 'founder, visionary and senior pastor' - lives rent free in a £1.1m nine-bedroom home in Romford, Essex, owned by the church.


Matthew Ashimolowo spent £120k on a birthday party for himself with church funds


He lives rent-free in a £1.1m mansion owned by the church


Documents obtained by The Sun show the property was purchased by the charity with no mortgage.

The Nigerian-born pastor lives with wife Yemisi, 58, who is also a senior pastor at the church and believed to earn more than £60,000-a-year from her role.

The couple owns a second £600,000 home in Grays, Essex, currently lived in by their son.

Ashimolowo has previously been found by the Charity Commission to have used church funds to pay for a £120,000 birthday party for himself at a London hotel, an £80,000 new Mercedes and a £13,000 Florida timeshare.

He was also paid around £50,000-a-year by the church for 'pastoral services' before the 2005 probe found he had flouted charity rules by being a trustee and paying himself a salary.mber-gone.jpg?strip=all&w=960[/img]
He lives rent-free in a £1.1m mansion owned by the church


Our reporter saw Oshimolowo lead a service called 'The Power of the Tithe



The congregation was told not donating was 'disobedience to God' before being given direct debit forms

The Charity Commission found there had been 'serious misconduct and mismanagement' of charity funds and told it to establish itself as a new charity with new trustees - which it did.

More than £500,000 was also legally paid by the church to his own private companies including Matthew Ashimolowo Media Ministries which publishes books and DVDs of his teachings.

Accounts show the publishing company raked in more than £2 million - making a profit of £877,000 - between 1999 and 2005 before it started filing less detailed financial statements under Companies House rules.

Speaking about his wealth in an interview this year, Ashimolowo said: "Money is called currency because it flows to where it is celebrated, to wherever it is respected and showed it is needed and can be handled well.

"Anything God blesses me with I just use to bless others. I don’t stack it somewhere."

But when Sun Online attended his church, a run-down converted cinema in Walthamstow, East London, more than 10 miles from Ashimolowo's plush home, the service felt more like a sales pitch.

The sermon, entitled 'The Power of the Tithe', listed 14 reasons why worshippers should donate 10 per cent of their income to the church.

Ashimolowo told the congregation: "If you do not pay the tithe, it is like you do not really trust God".

He labelled the money an "insurance against Satan" and warned of the dire consequences of non-payment.

The millionaire - estimated to be worth around £6 million by Forbes magazine in 2011 - says refusal to hand over hundreds of pounds a month will be seen by God as "disobedience" and result in it making "impossible for him to release your harvest".

dhebo:
how Matthew ashimolowo's congregation see this and still not understand the man is toying with their earning is what am confused about..how will a pastor live in a 1million dollars manshion

OneCorner:
So what do u want us to do now?
Go and close the church or kidnap d pastors?
thought this recent obsessions with pastors ended in 2017 sef

Pavore9:
Merchants of the Gospel.

uboma:




I will rather describe them as "thieves who uses the Bible as their tool"

Pavore9:

Happy New Year bro! Yes as their tool of trade.

frosbel2:
Most Nigerian Men of 'god' are shameless, unrepentant, THIEVES.

plaetton:

They are all thieves, every single one of them.

Jesse01:
he did not force people to come to his church or neither did he force his member to pay tithes and offerings did he?, so if he lives in a dollar million mansion or he's preying on his church members it dose not concer me his church members are not complaining ,so it none of my business.

dalaman:
Africans don't understand how the world works, that's why no matter how educated we are we still act not differently from out illiterate brothers and sisters living in our remote villages because we believe the same way that they do. We are too superstitious and we hide and mask behind our various religious beliefs to further our childish and primitive superstitious beliefs.

The whites find that hard to believe and swallow. A white man can not understand how God will make you a millionaire by simply praying to him, or cure you of cancer. If God cures people from cancer hospitals and their very expensive medical equipments will not exist.

When I first went to Germany over a decade ago I was astonished to realize that the christians there don't believe in miraculous healings the way we do. The way Nigerian christians have discarded all the old testament laws (except tithing ) is the way they have discarded things like miracles and other magical beliefs that comes from the bible.

Imagine people living in UK holding childish beliefs that if they do seeds God will make them pass their exams. What kind of primitive and childish superstitious nonsense is that?

Statsocial:
As Kenneth Hagin of blessed memory once said "when it comes to the issue of church finance there is a thin line between the Permissible and the Objectionable".

Meanwhile this Journalist went on a fault-finding mission and definitely when you go out to find fault you would definitenely find one. This is not to say there are no fraudsters out there fleecing people in the name of God...

I think it is high time that Religious organizations everywhere are mandated to give a complete and thorough financial review to members of the Church and the Public- I think with that, members can fully understand what their money is being used for... Church finances being clouded in secrecy does no one any good and it gives these ill-willing Atheists opportunity to exploit those controversies and derail some.

I also still believe that the Church expenditure and income which should be made completely open for all to review must FOREVER be Tax Exempt.

frosbel2:


Kenneth Hagin was a False Prophet and one of the founders of the false word of faith doctrine



No. British journalists are some of the best in the world and they would usually start an investigation based on revelations of financial imprudence and wild unsubstantiated claims of bogus healings by the fake and vile so-called men of God.



Members should never be compelled or coerced to give money based on the abuse of certain scriptural passages. People should give because they want to give and not because a scamming Pastor threatens them with a non-existent tithe curse.



Good, I agree but the church is not the numerous buildings you have scattered all over the land, the church is the people who are the temple of God. Therefore people are not obliged or mandated to contribute a kobo to any denomination, rather they can decide ( and rightly so ) to use this money to help the needy and poor around them including meeting the essential needs of their own families.

Statsocial:

There is no human being on Earth today that I respect more than the Man called Hagin.
Without that 'word of faith' you mentioned so casually I might not be alive today.
Hagin was not just a Pastor but a mordern Patriarch. By calling Hagin a false prophet you have only successfully proved that you are sent from the Dark side. In case you think you are a Christian I would advise you to rededicate your life and retrace your steps, learning in humility. You have been pushed into complete falsehood and error by reading many junks online. Take the admonition of the wise Solomon and Guard your Heart with all diligence for from it flows the Springs of Life.

And no, British Journalist and aren't infallible. One of such led an inquiry into Living Faith Records which led to Oyedepo's ban from the UK. I hope you propagated the results of the inquiry-Living Faith was commended and recommended as a Model for Charities in the UK while Oyedepo's ban was reversed.