Pastor working as guard, steals master’s N24m, rents apartment for lover

…gives 300 dollars at every church service

Suspect: I would have blown the whistle on my boss

‘I stole money because my boss and his wife are mean’

Andrew

Mr. Alfred Andrew is a 40-year-old security guard, alleged to have stolen his master’s N24million.

He, however, would be the first person to tell you that he is a trained pastor. 

He didn’t deploy his training as a pastor. Rather, he got a job as a security guard, working for Mr.  Emmanuel, who placed him on a monthly salary of N25,000.

Andrew, who should know better as a trained man of God, repeatedly stole from his boss. He also used part of the stolen money to rent an apartment for his lover.

Feeling rich and drunk on the stolen foreign currencies, Andrew, a bachelor, religious to his bones, said that he started giving 300 dollars at church services.

His lavish lifestyle came to an abrupt end, after his boss discovered that wands of money were slowly disappearing from the bundles in his wardrobe.

It wasn’t too long before the stolen money was traced to Andrew. Without mincing words, Andrew said he would have alerted EFCC about the stupendous money he found in his employer’s wardrobe, only he didn’t know the phone number to call.

He further confessed to have stolen his boss’s hard currencies, which he converted to naira and lodged in his personal bank account, because the man and his wife were mean to him and even their dog.

Recounting how he found the money, Andrew said: “I was sweeping and saw a key on the floor. I took it; I tried the key on a door that was padlocked and it opened. I went inside and climbed upstairs. I started checking the documents. Something fell on me from the top of the wardrobe. It was hard currencies. I climbed on a chair to see what was on the top of the wardrobe and noticed that there are different currencies, including South African currency and coins. The currency at the top wasn’t much compared to the quantity I saw at the lower part of the wardrobe; that part of the wardrobe had more quantities. I was tempted to take the money. Before then, I had been hearing of whistleblowing; but I wasn’t sure who to contact. I was scared. I didn’t know who to trust in Nigeria. You might tell someone and the person may turn things against you. I started picking out of the bundles. There were many bundles and some were wrapped. That’s the first time I was seeing such an amount of money. I’ve only seen such in movies. I confirmed from someone the amount in a single bundle. He said it was N130 million when converted.  I didn’t touch that one because it was sealed. I only took from the unwrapped bundles.”

A police source said: “On May 6, the complainant, Emmanuel, who lives at Gwarimpa Housing Estate realised that some of his foreign currencies were missing. He decided to search everyone in the house.
He discovered that Alfred, the security man, whose monthly salary was N25,000, was in possession of an Iphone 7. The phone’s market value is more than N300,000. Also found in his room were expensive designer clothes. Complainant immediately alerted operatives of Special Intelligence Response Team (IRT). The suspect was picked up. At the police station, he confessed to the crime. At least 24 million was found in his bank account. He also took the police to an apartment that he rented in town where his girlfriend lives. She was also found with expensive phones which she claimed the suspect gave to her.”
Andrew, from Bunguru, Bauchi State, who said he was not yet married because he has not found a woman to love, explained that he graduated from University of Jos, where he did an Ordinary National Diploma course in Mass Communication and Information Technology.

He later proceeded to Christ Embassy, Jos, where his father, a retired soldier and his mother reside.

He worked there for years before moving to Abuja in 2008. It was in Abuja that he became a staff of Evangelical Fire Ministry, at Sani Abacha Estate. He also went to Dunamis Bible School; there he got information on how to start a ministry.

He said with a tinge of pride: “I am a pastor considering my trainings. After that, I went back to Evangelical Ministry and worked with them.  We moved to Lanta in Plateau State, after the owner of the place we were using died. The deceased’s wife later asked us to leave. My new boss is from Lanta. My boss at Lanta later slashed salaries of everyone working for him. I stayed with them for two years and later I saw I couldn’t meet up with my needs, so I relocated to Abuja. I started attending family worship center at the usual introductory classes. It was from there my uncle linked me to Oga Emmanuel, the man I’m working with presently.”
Andrew said that he has worked three years for Emmanuel, and within those years, the man has never increased his salary even though he kept promising.

Andrew said: “It’s been a month now. I noticed that the bundles of money were reducing from the band that held it. I told myself that if I keep the money with me, it could become an exhibit. I decided to keep it in my bank account. I first converted it to naira. If I had any bad intentions towards my employers, I would have left after taking the money. I watched my boss closely. Each time he travels out of the country, he would come back with new currencies. I heard he is into Real Estate, but I’m not sure. The one I converted turned out to be N24 million.”

According to Andrew, after he was discovered, he was forced to transfer the N24million into Emmanuel’s account.
Recounting his spending before he was found out, Andrew said: “I bought clothes, phones and handset gadgets. I didn’t wear the clothes. The other money I changed was inside my bag. On that fateful Friday morning, my boss came and ordered that nobody should go out, that his money was missing. He invited his sister who works with Department of State Services (DSS). She checked my phone and bags. They took every of my property, even those I bought with my money.

“They took my passport, ATM cards, Holy Bible, everything I had! After taking all from me, they handed me over to the police. I tried to tell the policemen, that my boss and his sister have collected everything and were trying to cover up.

“I told my boss that I would implicate him. He asked me what wrong he had done to me. He said he had been good to me. I told him that his wife had not been giving me food for over three years. It was even my own food that I was giving their dog. It was part of the reasons I did what I did.”

 He explained that Emmanuel, after he hired him, promised that he would increase his salary every four month. He also promised Andrew good feeding.

Andrew said: “My boss didn’t keep to his promises. They also promised that if someone moves into the compound, after another moves out, my salary would be increased, but it wasn’t. My boss’s building is a block of flats; he lives in one and put others for rent. I threatened to report him to the EFCC; he said the money wasn’t his. He said that someone gave him the money to keep. That was our last discussion before police took me away. I didn’t know who to report then. I didn’t have the number of the whistle blowers.”

Andrew disclosed that he has tried all possible to know the source of his boss’s income. He failed. He said that he once heard that Emmanuel has a chamber.
He added: “If you ask him for money, he would say there was no money, while there is money inside the house. I have bought fuel for the generator twice or three times. Whenever the generator stops in the night, he would start shouting at me; he would say that if I was tired of the job, I should get out.  He wasn’t giving me money.  I also planned to see if the money was increasing or decreasing. Whenever I go there, I would be tempted to take one or two. The money I saw there is too much. He has two cupboards. The key is the wife’s own. I never thought of duplicating it. I go into the room whenever they go for prayer meeting. They used to stay in prayer meeting for an hour. I used to give 300 dollars or so during church services.
I would like to go back to ministry work; that’s the only thing I know I can do if I’m forgiven and allowed to go. I didn’t send money to my mother because she would have questioned the source.”