By Solomon Okpo and Effiong Usoro
• Members want Pastor Abayomi To Go
• Accuse Him of Misappropriation of Church’s Funds
• Being A Tribalism
• Employment of only his kinsmen in the church
Crises is looming in the Regional Headquarters of Mountain Of Fire And Miracles Ministries, MFM, South-South 3 Uyo in Akwa Ibom State as members of the Church have demanded immediate removal of the Regional Overseer, Pastor Ezekiel Abayomi over alleged insult on members and exhibition of ungodly.
They also want the removal of the church Administrator, Mr. Joseph who has spent more than 10 years on that position.
Investigations by The Evangelist reporter confirmed that members of the church are angry with Pastor Abayomi over his alleged tribalistic tendencies, misappropriation of the church money and gross abuse of the doctrine of MFM.
Commented on the crisis accused the pastor of running the church as his personal estate and refusing to publish the account of the church.
Pastor Abayomi was said to have also attracted the anger of members for insisting on engaging only his kinsmen to execute projects or other matters of the church.
According to a report scoop by our reporter, Abayomi is alleged to have diverted N12.5m being part of the money contributed by members for part payment for the purchase of a 2.7 heaters of land for the building a prayer city into his personal account.
He was also accused of pocketing N5m donated by Governor Udom Emmanuel to the church and later lied to members that he had paid the money into the account of the General Overseer of MFM Pastor Olukoya in Lagos.
Members observed with dismay a situation where Pastor Abayomi has abandoned his primary duty of evangelism to fraternize with top politicians and government officials in Akwa Ibom state to make money which has enable him to live a flamboyant life style as he is always moving round in convoy of cars with escort and security.
They recalled that recently Pastor Abayomi who was sent on duty in pulpit exchange in Ijebu Ode in Ogun state, abandoned his duty post and rushed back to Akwa Ibom state and attended a monthly solemn assembly in government house in Uyo.
Members and ministers who were unanimous in their demand for immediate removal of Abayomi noted that his utterances did not portray him as a true servant of God as he had been mounting the pulpit to curse those that complain about his ungodly activities and pray for their death even as he equally adopt divide and rule tactics to create enmity among members thereby causing disharmony in the church.
Other sins of Pastor Abayomi according to the members, include his appointment of only his kinsmen as staff of MFM in Uyo.
For instance, they recalled that Pastor Abayomi sacked the Accountant of the church who is an indigene of Akwa Ibom state and appointed his brother- in-law, Tayo Elijah Sheleye as the Accountant, arguing that the action was to enable him to cover up his financial misdeeds.
To further demonstrate his hatred for members of the church who are from Akwa Ibom State, Abayomi was accused of excluding elders from the state in the church building committee.
“Pastor Abayomi has no respect for even the pastors as he is enslaving them with a threat to sack any of them who disobey his order”, a member lamented.
Other allegations leveled against Abayomi include sidelining Akwa Ibom members of the church in the management of MFM as well deceiving the church several times to contribute money for visit of the General Overseer to Akwa Ibom.
They alleged such money always ended up in his pocket as the pastor has refused to render account to the church.
Findings by our reporter show that Pastor Abayomi’s kinsmen of Yoruba extraction have repeatedly abuse Akwa Ibom members of MFM at various fora.
For instance, our reporter learnt that an Accountant of the church, Tayo Elijah had recently boasted while speaking to a member of the church that no pastor of MFM in Akwa Ibom will be appointed as Regional Overseer of MFM in the next 30 years.
The media officer of the church, Mr. Gilbert Uko who confirmed this report to The Evangelist reporter regretted the ungodly attitude of Pastor Abayomi printing out that his activities has seriously affected the unity of the church.
He maintained that the pastor’s candor was capable of exposing MFM to public ridicule apart from causing mass withdrawal of members.
Meanwhile, members of the church who are from Akwa Ibom have called on the General Overseer of MFM to remove Pastor Abayomi from Uyo Region and ensure that henceforth a pastor of MFM from Akwa Ibom are posted as Regional Overseer in the state to give members from the State a sense of belonging.
They also called on the General Overseer, Pastor Daniel Olukoya to visit Akwa Ibom state to demonstrate to his love for the members of the church from the state and intervene to save the church from disintegration.
Mountain Of Fire And Miracle Ministries was established in Akwa Ibom State in 1999 with only twelve members.
The church now has many branches in the state with thousands of members across the state.
The embattled pastor has also been accused of refusing to upgrade other MFM churches to zonal status