The Redeemed Christian Church of God has commenced an audit on the finance accounts of the City of David parish in the Victoria Island area of Lagos State.
TheNewsGuru.com(TNG) reports that the audit is coming barely a week after the church’s senior pastor Idowu Iluyomade was suspended on June 1 for three months by the council of elders.
It was gathered that the cleric was suspended over the church’s finances and his alleged resistance to be transferred from the parish.
Iluyomade was asked to report to the churh’s headquarters after being replaced by Pastor Charles Kpandei from RCCG Resurrection Parish of Region 11.
Kpandei resumed at the parish on Sunday, June 9, preaching on the subject of heaven.
During the service, it was announced that the church paid about N15 million for the construction of the Trinity Tower between June 1 and 8, however, the congregation was told that the parish had an outstanding N320 million debt.
A source told Church Times that the parish is being audited by a notable audit firm amid an alleged N320 million debt.
The source said it was not a practice for the RCCG to recruit an independent body to conduct an audit.
“Iluyomade, the erstwhile pastor of the church, was suspended on June 1 following complaints and allegations against him. He was asked to resume at the church’s headquarters.
“The parish is currently being audited by KPMG, which is not an RCCG financial and audit practice. It was necessary to get an external auditor because before now, most of the provinces under the Apapa Family were not audited by RCCG auditors,” the source said.
Recall, Iluyomade’s wife held a lavish party a week after a prominent member of the church and the former group chief executive officer of Access Holdings, Herbert Wigwe, his wife, Chizoba and son Chizi and several others died in a helicopter crash in California, United States on February 9.
After the party, social media was flooded with stories that the Iluyomades were not sensitive to the plight of the Wigwe’s, who until death were strong members of the parish.
Netizens argued that the entire Church should have set some days aside to mourn Herbert, wife and son, adding that the party held at Eko Hotel was done in bad taste.
The church was conspicuously left out of the Wigwe’s family funeral.