Christopher Jeje Akiri, one of the men who started the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) with the late Pa Akindayomi, has died a broken-hearted man.

Pa Akiri, who served as the church’s interpreter in Lagos before Pastor Enoch Adeboye took over (and later became the church’s General Overseer) started RCCG in Abuja and was known as a holiness preacher.

Reliable sources said that for that reason RCCG sidelined him, stripped him of all privileges, confined him to a decrepit corner shop as a home, somewhere in Karu, and the out-of-favour minister from Delta State was left to be feed from hand to mouth for years until he gave up the ghost on February 3, 2015, at the age of 83.

As at the time of this report, Pa Akiri’s body was still lying cold in the mortuary because of lack of money to buy a casket and take his body home for burial. The family is living more or less on charity. The children are unemployed.

News Express learnt that when the pastor of his local church (established by Pa Akiri, who served as the pioneer pastor), RCCG Praise Assembly, Karu Site, visited the family, he advised them to find money and buy a casket and left.

Speaking on the matter, Apostle Adewale Adelekan of Christ’s Race Church, Jikwoyi, near Karu, who knew Akiri well, said the treatment meted out to Pa Akiri is not only inhuman but manifestly ungodly. He wondered at what some people have turned Christianity into these days, saying the matter was scandalous and a big dent on RCCG’s image.

Efforts to get RCCG’s reaction did not yield fruit as at the time of publication.

•Photo shows late RCCG founding minister, Pastor Christopher Jeje Akiri.

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