A woman in her 50s, Madam Alimot (surname withheld), has revealed how she and others had been conniving with a pastor in one of the South West states to stage spiritual problems which, after being sprinkled with water and anointed with oil, would vanish immediately, making the congregation to believe that a miracle has happened.

With shouts of joy, praise songs and dancing, pervading the atmosphere with exhilaration, the pastor’s next move would be to tell the worshippers who desire such a miracle to drop money at the church altar.

With the expectation of diverse miracles, many of the congregants would run to the altar, drop money in thousands of naira, while others would seek the church’s account number and transfer money to it.

The reward for the job, which involved travelling from Ibadan to the neighbouring state and back, was only N7,000, including the transport fare, Alimot said.

Alimot, whose secret came out in the open after she involved the nephew of a tenant (name withheld) in the deal, was recently apprehended by the Oluyole Security Surveillance Team in Ibadan, Oyo State after the victim reported her threats when he returned from a journey she forced him into.

In the church he was taken to, he was made to act like a deaf who regained hearing after prayers and anointing. After the pastor got a lot of cash donations and paid his share to Alimot, the teenager was not given anything, except N500 to board vehicles back to his home. Not only that, he said that the woman started issuing threats, saying that the teenager had exposed her work engagement to others in the community they live.

It was learnt that service in the particular church was usually carried out as if it was a movie scene where the participants play different roles from time to time.

According to information gathered, they sometimes act like lunatics; other times, they would present themselves as imbeciles, deaf and dumb, blind and spiritually attacked individuals, among others, until the teenager exposed the syndicate.

It was learnt that according to the syndicate‘s plan with the pastor, the participants would approach the church altar when called out for deliverance and healing. They would be prayed for and anointed with oil, after which they would shout and claim deliverance from what was ailing them. The blind would rub their eyes with their fingers and shout ‘I can see!’ Same with the deaf and mute who would start hearing and speaking.

The woman leading the syndicate was said to be staying at Iyana Agbala at Alakia side of Ibadan. Whenever they planned to go to the town for another ‘deliverance session,’ they would converge on the woman’s house and move from there after directives had been given.

In an interview with Madam Alimot, an Ibadan indigene, she told her side of the story thus: “I live at Olomi Area of the city. I was a beer and wine seller before and well known in my area. However, I had an accident and my business crashed. I had another accident at Olomi when a car hit me. So, I couldn’t continue with my business since two years ago.

“It was then that someone told me about a church’s style of gaining membership and raising much money through bringing in people who would pretend as needing healing from sicknesses and diseases.

“Sometimes, a member of the syndicate would act as an imbecile. Other times, I would act like someone who is a witch and had rendered her husband impotent. After my ‘confession,’ the pastor would use anointing oil and water to restore the manhood of the syndicate member who would pretend to be my husband.

“I could also act as if I spiritually attacked the child of my rival in my marriage. The person who introduced the business to me lived at Oke Adu. She was known as Iya Deola but died recently. I have worked with the syndicate about four times and I made up my mind not to go to the church for such deceit again. I kept off the business for almost two years before I ventured into it again. Lately, my mind just went to her, and I borrowed the phone of the boy, whose involvement exposed me, to call her.

“What I got to understand is that the pastor would call her whenever he needed people to come to church gathering and act as if a miracle was occurring. The worshippers were many.

“One of the acts I performed was that I pretended as if I afflicted my rival’s son with impotence because I didn’t give birth to a male child and was being oppressed by his mother. The pastor would anoint him with oil and sprinkle water on him. Immediately, he would hold his manhood and start rejoicing, telling the congregation that he felt life in it again.”

My performance fee

“I used to be paid N7,000 each time I went to the town and return to Ibadan, and the payment would include transport fare. So, what I was usually left with was between N1,500 and N2,000. That was what I would use to eat.

“I have two children and one of them, a male, just got someone pregnant. He’s my second child. My daughter is married and blessed and blessed with two children but is currently sick.”

When asked why she was not afraid of offending the Divine Being, as a Muslim, she replied: “I had fear in me, but it was one Iya Samuel who used to call me for the ‘business.’ She didn’t go to the church but was the one to source for the people to be used in the church by the pastor. I didn’t know how much she was being paid.”

The teenager who exposed the woman narrated his experience thus: “My father is in Lagos while my mother is in Ibadan. They are divorced. I live with my uncle. I used to greet Madam Alimotu because she’s belongs to the family which owns my uncle’s rented house and is in charge of the house. She also lives there.

“What led to this occurrence was that she called me to lend her my phone so that she could make a call to somebody. She spoke with her contact for a long time that I had to have a discussion with her nephew, Abeeb, who asked me the kind of menial job I would like to do to have some money. I told him that I could work with bricklayers as a labourer.

“The following day, the woman Madam Alimotu called the day before gave me a call and I took the phone to her. I helped her to put the phone on speaker because she didn’t know how to operate it. I heard the woman asking Madam Alimotu if she had a male that would disguise as a mad man. I pulled back when I heard that, thinking: ‘what does this woman mean?’

“As I pulled back, Madam Alimotu urged me not to do so, assuring me that she would never wish me evil. She told me to follow her out so that I would not be the only one at home. She told me to take extra clothes with me and also took three pieces for herself.

“When we got to Iwo Road, I asked her where we were going, but she just replied that I should follow her. We boarded another vehicle to Iyana Agbala. We entered a street and I felt like running because the place was deserted. I told her that I wanted to go back home but she shouted at me that she had just N1,000 with her and we had used it for transportation.

“She asked me to act as a mad man, but I told her that I couldn’t do it. She then said that I should pretend to be a deaf and I had to agree because there was no money to transport myself back home. Eventually, she went with a woman to another place for the job, and I went with another man to the town where the pastor is.

“I met the man in the house at Iyana Agbala and noticed that he had been working with the syndicate before. She gave us N3,500 for transport fare, asking us to lap each other, and the man was the one who held the money. The woman at Iyana Agbala waited until she saw that the vehicle we boarded to the town we were going moved. The man I went with told me that I would be paid N7,000 for the job I was going to do.

“On getting to the town, we entered the church we were told to go to. We were made to go inside a room attached to the church and given directives on how we would play individual roles. The pastor walked past me but looked intently at me before moving forward. A woman whom I met in the church was asked to act as my mother and she sat beside me.

“At about 4pm, the church service started. The pastor and said there was a boy among the congregation who is deaf, asking him to come to the altar. My fake mother stood up and said that what the pastor said was true, as she brought her deaf child to the church. The pastor asked her to bring me forward and started praying. He poured oil on my head and immediately, I started acting as if I just woke up from a dream as I was taught to do. I asked: ‘where am I?’

“That I could talk sent the congregation into frenzy. I was given microphone to talk. The pastor then said that those who believe that is nothing God cannot do should come forward to drop N10,000 each at the altar. People started rushing forward to drop cash of varied amount. Some others did money transfer from their bank’s app.

“When we got back to Ibadan the following day, we dropped at Iyana Agbala. Madam Alimotu was called and she asked me to go home. I was given N500 for transport fare. When I got to Iwo Road, I went to my biological mother and mocked her belief in a religion, telling her that she was always buying water that had been prayed into. She is a Muslim but used to go to churches for prayers and purchase of spiritual water.

“I left for my uncle’s house but he was angry I went somewhere without informing him. He told me to pack my things and leave his house. Then, I explained things to him. I also told him that I informed a co-tenant but didn’t know we would go that far. He said he suspected Madam Alimotu and had advised her to desist from it.

“Aside the transport fare we were given when going to the church, I was not given any money when we returned to Ibadan. I was on WhatsApp when I had an audio call from the syndicate leader, asking if I was given N3,000 by Madam Alimotu. I told her I was not given anything. The syndicate leader asked me to take my phone to her and I heard when she castigated her, saying that she was the one who called her for the job and was not doing the right thing. Madam Alimot snatched the phone from me, saying that I had exposed her secret.

“I went to my uncle and told him what just transpired. I said that I was afraid of being attacked because Madam Alimotu told the syndicate leader that I had exposed them. He asked me to go to my mother but I didn’t want to go.

“He went to Madam Alimotu. The syndicate leader sent me a WhatsApp message saying ‘well done’ to me. She said that Madam Alimot came to her and told her that I have exposed everything they were doing to our neighbours. I also heard her telling that neighbour who knew that she took me out that she would drag issues with me. I went to her the following morning and she said I took her footwear. I had to lodge a complaint with OSST when she continued to threaten me.”

When contacted, the OSST Commandant, Olusegun Idowu, confirmed that the 17-year-old boy who is a JSS 3 student, reported the case of threat to life.

He said that during interrogation, it was discovered that those involved were not only within Oyo State but outside, adding that the complainant and the apprehended woman were transferred to Sanyo police station in the state police command for further investigation. (Nigerian Tribune, excluding headline)

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