₦airaland Forum

A Ghanaian pastor, Dan Owusu-Asiamah, has urged Christians to stop paying tithe, claiming some pastors are using it as a means to defraud them.

According to Adomonline, Owusu-Asiamah made the revelation on a radio programme on Monday, where he alleged that some pastors are defrauding church members because they use the tithe to enrich themselves.

He explained that the book of Deuteronomy in the Bible prohibits pastors from extorting money from their congregation.

Owusu-Asiamah added that pastors who collect 10 per cent of their members’ incomes are no different from “corrupt” politicians.

He said, “Tithe-paying is fraud. Under no circumstance was anyone asked to pay tithe in the Bible. Tithing has to do with foodstuffs. Everything they are doing now is wrong. We speak about corruption and talk about politicians. Corruption begins in the church. The church is actively doing these things. In Deuteronomy 14:25, it tells you, a tithe isn’t about money.”

“There is a difference between offertory and tithing, Malachi chapter 3: 8-10 says tithing has nothing to do with money but offering does. I challenge every clergyman to open a passage that says we should pay tithe on a monthly basis. No apostle asked a Christian to give one-tenth. Now it’s more like a law that some churches even collect the tithe before they bury the dead. How do you mark those who pay tithe in church?”

A court in Vietnam convicted 46 former bankers and businessmen of corruption on Monday over a multi-million-dollar lending scam spearheaded by the once-powerful chairman of Vietnam’s Construction Bank.

It is the latest in a series of major banking trials aimed at cleaning up the opaque sector long plagued by bad debts, corruption and nepotism.

Vietnam’s communist leaders have vowed to target the banking business as they wage a sweeping anti-graft campaign which observers say is unprecedented in its scope and scale.

The government said it is weeding out bad actors, while critics say it is also eliminating political foes in the process.

The latest bankers and executives jailed are accused of causing losses of more than $257 million in an elaborate lending scheme involving Vietnam’s Construction Bank, according to the official newspaper of the justice department of Ho Chi Minh City.

VNCB’s former head Pham Cong Danh was found guilty of overseeing an illegal lending scheme between VNCB, other allied banks and 29 private companies to which he had ties.

The companies were unable to repay the money and VNCB was eventually sold to the central bank for $0 in 2015.

Danh was given 20 years in jail for “deliberate wrongdoings… causing serious consequences”, the newspaper said, while his accomplices were given terms ranging from 10 years in jail to a two-year suspended sentence.

It was the second guilty verdict for Danh, who was convicted in a connected banking corruption trial in 2016. He will now serve a total of 30 years in jail.

The notorious banker spent several years in prison in the 1990s for embezzlement and gained a reputation as a shrewd — and wealthy — businessman during his career in the construction industry before he moved into banking.

He joins scores of bankers, executives and former politicians behind bars in the one-party state that has long had the reputation of being one of Asia’s most corrupt countries.

Despite strong economic growth in recent years it remains graft-prone, ranking 107 out of 180 on Transparency International’s corruption Index — behind Thailand, Indonesia and China.

I almost lost my life running errends for her. All i asked was time to study for my forthcoming exams and also in the midst also work for her. I wasn't really about the pay. I fell ill in the process working and funny i didn't get a lil support for my medical bills. I let that slid.

All this drama just started this morning when i asked for a fewdays to study she asked if this job was convenient and i replied no just for the main time not like i wanted to quit. Then she said i can go back.

I thought she understood as a mother would. Tomorrow completes a month i started working with her efficiently. I got home and i asked if i would be paid for the month i worked and she replief with a no saying i was on probation. Sometimes i come home late without eating and sometimes i have to resume work without eating and it caused my ulcer to start again. She started all this by bringing it to the social media.

She would have just let it all die this morning. PA's are people's children not classified maids.

A 46-year-old father of five, Mr. Michael Igbokwe, has revealed how his 17-year-old daughter, Queency Igbokwe, was allegedly abducted and forced into prostitution by a woman he collected a loan of N1 million from to boost his business.
Recollecting his daughter’s disappearance since last year, Michael said that one of his salesgirls told Queency that there was a fantastic job, with an attractive salary, which she could linked her to. Queency had immediately accepted to do the job, without knowing what the job entailed.

Michael said: “I didn’t know that it was the lady, Maureen Onuniwu, who I collected a loan from that contracted my salesgirl to lure my daughter with a promise of a good job, and then forced her into prostitution. Since 2017, I have been making frantic efforts to locate my daughter. One day, she left my office at Iyana-Oba, saying she was heading home to pick something; that was the last time I saw her.”

Michael explained that on August 28, 2017, he was at home, preparing to go to his office, when he overheard Queency, speaking with Rachael Obaro, one of his salesgirls.
He said that the conversation he heard was quite disturbing, so he called Queency and threatened to beat her if she didn’t open up and tell him what she was discussing with Obaro.

He added: “She said that Rachael told her she had secured a job for her. When Rachel started getting close to my daughter, I noticed and warned her to leave my daughter alone. I also threatened to sack her if she didn’t delete my daughter’s phone number from her phone. Rachel said that I couldn’t force her to delete Queency number from her contact. One fateful day, Rachael didn’t come to office, when I called her phone to know why; she claimed that hot water poured on her leg. The following day, Rachael called Queency and told her that she had secured the job for her. When my daughter told me about the job, I got angry.

“I have warned her against accepting the job. I also told her to focus on the computer training school she was attending, coupled with the UTME she was about to sit for. My plan for her was to study Law. On August 30, I left home very early to see someone. While there, I called to ask Queency if she was already in the office. She was the person that used to open the office for other workers.

“She told me she was going to check the company, where Rachael told her she had secured a job for her. My wife and I waited throughout that day without Queency returning home. When it was 8p.m., I called her to know if she was close to the house; she picked and replied that she was still at the company. I asked her how much the company was planning to pay her, she said N15,000. I shouted at her to return home, that I would pay the same amount, but she hung up on me.”

When Michael couldn’t handle the situation anymore, he went to his pastor to prevail on his daughter to return home.
When the pastor eventually spoke with Queency, she said she didn’t have money to return home. “Immediately, I went to the bank and transferred N2,000 into her account. When I asked her where she was, she told me she was somewhere in Ajegunle area, on her way home,” said Michael.

Exactly two weeks after Michael sent N2,000 to Queency, he went to his bank to confirm the location that the girl withdrew the money from. He discovered the money was withdrawn at International Trade Fair axis.
Michael said: “I also went to police control room to declare her missing. Two days after that, one Inspector Sam called me from Iba Police Station, to say that a woman came to report me at their station that I owed her money. It was Maureen. I later got to know that Maureen conspired with Rachael to abduct Queency. I told the police why I had not paid the loan. It was because Maureen sued me and the matter is still pending. “I know Maureen is the person holding my daughter captive. She kidnapped my daughter and forced her into prostitution.”

Michael said that in May 2016, he collected N1 million loan from Onuniwu, promising to pay back on or before June 15, 2016. He said that he couldn’t meet up with the payment because business was poor. He begged for three months’ extension, which Onuniwu allegedly didn’t accept. She then took him to police station, where he was detained for five days.

“When I confronted Maureen, she said that since I refused to refund her the N1 million loan, that my daughter should be able to refund the money through prostitution,” Michael alleged.

Reacting to all the allegations levelled against her, Onuniwu laughed, stressing that Michael had been feeding media and other people pack of lies.
The woman, who introduced herself as a money lender, said that she only assisted Michael, whose business was about to collapse, with N1 million, only for him to refuse to pay back.

She said: “On March 16, 2016, Michael came to me to collect the loan. Before then, I didn’t know him. It was through a woman, who came to collect loan from me, who he stood surety for that I got to know him. A week after the woman collected the loan, Michael came to me that his business was dying; he said that I should assist him with a loan. When he came, I told him I don’t give loans to people I don’t know. He begged and prevailed on me to help him. Out of pity, I asked him to take me to his shop. We went there and after inspecting it, I called my lawyer and his own lawyer. We had an agreement and the money was released to him.

“Since he had collected the money, he had been coming up with different tricks not to repay. I’m surprised about this issue of his daughter. I don’t know his daughter. I cannot use her for prostitution in place of my money because I have my own daughter. He even reported me to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID) on this same issue. When I got there, after explaining myself, I was exonerated. He left there and went to Anti-Kidnapping Unit to report me again, I was also exonerated again.

“In order to get my money, I went to his village in Imo State to report him to their monarch. He was summoned to the village, but he refused to honour the invitation. On Tuesday last week policemen from Iba Police Station came to arrest me; but thank God I was released after explaining myself to the Divisional Police Officer (DPO). Each time police go to arrest him, he would run away.

“Nobody would see him for a month, and then, he would resurface. After collecting money from me, he also went to Chibueze Nwaigwe and collected N250,000 from him. Rather than pay the man, he went to police station and painted the guy black. It was when I went to SCIID that I met Chibueze there. He came to lodge similar complaint against Michael.”