The Unholy Bandits

Churches all over the world are known as Christian’s places of worship. They are revered as holy and sacred places where certain acts like trading, wining and dining are abhorred. Christians generally troop into churches to pray and worship God, their creator, and also to seek solutions to various life problems.

Though unwritten in most cases, there are various ethics and code of conduct expected from people inside the church. However, despite these well known rules, some people of questionable characters have found a safe haven in the church. They do all kinds of abominable acts without minding the consequences .

In recent times, in Onitsha, Anambra state, shocking tales about activities of hoodlums and fraudsters who have caused untold havoc on the body of Christ have unfolded. Read all about it below. The prologue One prominent feature of any catholic church in the world is the erection of a chapel structure for Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration outside the main church buildings.

This is a place usually prepared for special meditative prayers with the exposure of the monstrance containing the blessed Eucharist (host) and in some cases, complemented with the statue of Blessed Virgin Mary and Divine Mercy. Catholics believe in the efficacy of the Eucharist and the presence of Jesus Christ in a spiritual form inside the exposed Eucharist. Devotees also converge in different chapels every 3pm known as the Hour of Divine Mercy to pray through a departed nun and beatified saint called Faustina for special prayers of mercy to Jesus Christ whom theologians recorded to have died at 3pm during his crucifixion by the Jews.

However, investigations by our reporter have shown that such sacred quiet places have become the target of most thieves and fraudsters. The conmen devise various methods and styles. While some pose as prophets with divine revelation to assist a devotee, others pose as beggars who appear in holier than thou attitude to seek for alms in a coded way.

At the Sacred Chapel of Adoration, Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity, Onitsha,, investigation by Sunday Sun revealed that the perpetrators who are mainly young men between the ages of 25 to 35 hang around the chapel pretending to be devotees but once they sight a woman or young ladies, they quietly swing into action. A victim of the fraudsters, Uju Onochie, a final year English Education student at Nwafor Orizu College of Education, Nsugbe narrated her bitter experience to Sunday Sun.

Searching frantically for the man who defrauded her of N25,000 in front of the adoration chapel, Uju said she came from school to Onitsha to collect some money sent from her people in the village through her sister who visited home. According to her, after collecting the cash from her sister, she decided to say her confession in the church and later went to the chapel for penance prayers and also to thank God for the money for she had already exhausted her cash in school. Unaware that somebody had already laid ambush to defraud her, as she was leaving the chapel, a smartly dressed young man clutching a bible walked up to her and started prophesizing to her revealing some details about her life .

Subsequently, the man took her to a nearby pavement within the Basilica premises and they sat down to discuss. The man also told her to make a donation of N400 with three packets of biscuits to the nearest motherless babies home in order to avert an impending calamity and also, for a quick answer to her prayers.

At this moment, Uju having been conquered fully by the fraudster’s game plan acted like somebody under a spell and told the man that she had some cash already. The man subsequently told her to put the money inside a bible for prayers after which a balance would be deducted from the money. Still under the spell, Uju rushed into a book shop and bought a bible immediately placing the N25, 000 inside as the man directed. Midway into their prayers, the conman devised another means to keep the lady away from the scene.

He said she must go and buy a packet of candle that would be used to offer similar prayers at home as the angels were already hanging to bless the candles and release her blessings in trailer loads. Hungry and desirous of receiving her long awaited blessings , hapless Uju hurriedly raced outside the church gate to purchase the candles but before she could come back, the man had quietly left the scene and disappeared with the N25,000 leaving only the bible behind.

Dazed and confused, Uju then realized that she has been duped in the house of God. Inside the chapel, many tricks Uju’s pathetic case is one out of many ways unsuspecting worshipers are duped or had their properties stolen while praying inside the chapel.

For instance, in many churches within Onitsha, despite the fact that it is an unwritten rule that shoes and all other foot wears are removed and dropped at the door while entering the chapel as a mark of reverence for God and for the cleanliness of the chapel, anybody who tries such these days with a quality shoe will have himself to blame. There have been many cases where somebody went inside to pray only to discover that his shoes have been stolen. To forestall such happenings where devotees who went in to pray later returned home bare footed, people now devised a method whereby they now enter the chapel carrying their shoes in hand and placing it beside their seats with eagle eyes keeping watch even in the mood of prayers.

Another category of thieves ransack offering boxes and collection trays where people drop their petitions with cash enclosed. Many parishes in Onitsha now place the offering boxes and receiving trays inside the chapel sanctuary behind heavy iron bars fixed with padlocks.

A parish church warden at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, Odoakpu Onitsha told Sunday Sun that such cases have been rampant in the church until the precautionary measures was taken. “We have seen cases of offering box breaking and money subsequently stolen. Such thieves also target the afternoon hours when people are mostly in the market and workplaces before they enter the chapel to carry out their sacrilegious acts.

They open people’s petition papers placed in the trays and collect money enclosed without thinking of the implications. They don’t know that such cash have been fortified with different problems bothering those who made the prayers. They also steal people’s phones while we have arrested several people caught in the act” our source disclosed. Another dimension of the sacrilege inside chapels discovered by our reporter is the antics of “beggars”.

For this set of beggars, begging along the streets is old fashioned and unprofitable. What they do is that they dress well adorning various sacramental like scapular, rosary and bible.

They pretend to be brothers and sisters in Christ going through challenges and wouldn’t hesitate to quote relevant verses of the bible on almsgiving to convince their preys. They most times succeed in getting help probably because the person they approached did not want to raise eyebrows or distract other people praying in the chapel. Another source told the reporter how this set operates.

“They quietly approach you inside the chapel and say Brother, praise God. I came to my uncle’s house from Enugu this evening and discovered that he traveled. His phone is switched off and I need to get back to Enugu so that I can partake in Fr. Mbaka’s adoration prayers today. Pick pockets snatched the cash I had on me at the Upper Iweka motor park and I’m stranded right now.

Remember God loves a cheerful giver and He will not forget you.” While the person approached in this way inside the chapel may quietly dip hands inside the pocket and give the “professional beggar” something, the painful aspect of the story is that the same person claiming to look for means of getting back to Enugu will simply relocate to another nearby church and continue the same begging with the same old story and method.

There are others who feign sickness that has defied cure to also beg for money inside the chapel while another set claim to be orphans with no where to lay their heads” Musical equipment disappear from church Parishioners of Holy Trinity Catholic Parish, Awada, Onitsha are still bemused and confused as to how their giant musical organ valued at N350, 000 suddenly developed wings and ‘flew away’ from the church.

Narrating what happened to Sunday Sun, the parish catechist, Arinze Ogbejesi said that the church built a safe box where the equipment is normally kept under lock and key. Unfortunately, the key got damaged and they did not replace it immediately. He said the choir master traveled within the period and other members of the choir thought that since the church is a holy place of worship there is no point to fear about the safety of the equipment.

However, the presumption cost the church greatly as they came to church the next day and discovered that the organ had been stolen. All announcements, pleadings and entreaties made to the congregation for the thief to return the equipment were all in vain. Though a member of the church has generously replaced the equipment to the church, Ogbejesi said that the shock that people can commit such act within the church is still visible among the congregation.

The catechist also confirmed to the reporter that they see several kinds of dubious acts from people that throng the church seeking for help while indirectly looking for what to steal or whom to dupe. Priest defrauded of N40 million The fraud game in the church assumed a frightening dimension sometime ago when a fraudster tricked the Rector of a senior seminary to part with about N40 million.

According to a reliable source, the seminary had raised the money during an endowment fund programme and the Rector was planning on how to invest it to yield returns for the church when the conmen cornered him and smooth-talked him into signing away the money for a business deal. The scammer disappeared thereafter. The source further disclosed to our reporter that the scam was a very big scandal in the church which later led the church to take a decision that further bank transactions in any church account must involve double or triple signatories.

The Rector involved was said to have quickly handed over to another priest and left for further studies abroad. The unmistakable conclusion Taking a holistic look on the entire scenario, a catholic priest at the Holy Trinity Parish, Iba Pope, Awada, Rev. Fr. Stephen Ezenwagu told Sunday Sun that the ugly situation is a sign of the end time rooted on three angles.

The first he said is because of the bad economy in Nigeria, the second is the worsening moral decadence and the third is anchored on the absence of the fear of God by people. “This is a sign of false worship. Many people that troop into churches today do not come to worship God.

The economy is in a parlous state and government is not thinking about the people. In situations of hardship, some people tend to go wild without boundaries. But to steal in the house of God is a sign of decline on the people’s spirituality. There is this book I read some weeks ago and a professor was asked what the greatest fear of today is. He answered that the only fear today is that the fear of God is dying seriously.

That is why we see murderers and abortionists still come to church. People fear deities and charms more than the supreme God because He is a merciful God. That is why people take their fellow brethren to shrines when there is a dispute instead of returning to God but I still emphasize that the wrath of God is coming. So, this is the time for repentance” he said.

Source: Sun News