Tuesday 30 October 2012

Bone marrow hope for African patients

This article appeared in the final edition of the BBC Focus on Africa magazine.

30 October 2012 Last updated at 08:08
Olabisi Bokinni and Seun Adebiyi Olabisi Bokinni (l) and Seun Adebiyi (r) had different personal reasons for their interest in bone marrow

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Cancer dramatically changed the outlook of one Nigerian and prompted him to save countless other lives, writes US-based journalist Frederica Boswell, in this article published in the BBC Focus on Africa magazine
In August 2010, Olabisi Bokinni was 24 years old and working at a management consultancy in Ikeja, Lagos, when she learnt that her brother, who lived in the United States, was diagnosed with leukaemia.
"At the time, I did not have a clue about cancer," she says. After several weeks of tests and chemotherapy, she was told that his doctors were looking for a match for a stem cell donation to restore his weakened cells.
Doctors focused on his siblings, and sent a package for blood samples to be taken. Weeks later, Ms Bokinni was told that she was a possible match.
Her brother's hospital prepared her paperwork for a US visa, but it was denied. She remembers the day vividly: "The last thing I asked my interviewer was: 'You want him to die?'"
It was obvious that they needed another plan, so she was sent to the bone marrow registry in Cape Town, South Africa for the procedure.

“Start Quote

I wanted to start a registry in Nigeria for diaspora Africans to be able to draw from a pool of donors”
Seun Adebiyi
When she finally saw the package of her stem cells that would be delivered to the hospital in the US, Ms Bokinni recalls pleading with the doctors: "Deliver it to save my brother's life!"
Family connections are the likeliest match for stem cell transplants. If a patient does not have a sibling, doctors search within the same ethnic group because there is a higher compatibility for certain genes called Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) markers.
This means that Ms Bokinni's brother could have found it difficult to find a donor in the US. African Americans make up only 8% of the bone marrow registry in the US, and according to the National Marrow Donor Programme, African-American patients have less than a 17% chance of finding a bone marrow match, compared to 70% of white patients.
Bone marrow registry
While working in the finance industry in the US, a Nigerian-American lawyer, Seun Adebiyi, was faced with these odds.
Sunday Ocheni, Seun Adebiyi and Ifeoma OkoyeMr Adebiyi (centre) joined forces with doctors Ocheni (left) and Okoye (right) to start the bone marrow registry
He was diagnosed with lymphoblastic lymphoma and stem cell leukaemia in January 2009.
"Chemotherapy would buy me time, but not save my life. I needed a system reset," he explains.
Unfortunately, this was not going to prove easy to find in the US, and so he started looking to the country of his birth.
Mr Adebiyi knew that one in five black people in the world is Nigerian, and the country is home to a quarter of Africa's population.
With almost 400 distinct ethnic groups, the size and diversity made it the perfect place to establish a bone marrow registry.
"I decided that I wanted to start a registry in Nigeria for diaspora Africans to be able to draw from a pool of donors," he says.
There was no registry or infrastructure in Nigeria to help with his goal, but Mr Adebiyi is not one to shy away from a challenge.
He passed the bar exam, required to qualify fully in the US, while undergoing chemotherapy. "I wouldn't take no for an answer," he says simply.
South Africa had the only other registry in Africa, and he made a deal with them to store his initial data.

The procedure

Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of a bone marrow stem cell (beige).
Bone marrow transplantation and peripheral blood stem cell transplantation are procedures that restore stem cells destroyed by some types of cancer, and other blood diseases like sickle cell anaemia.
After being treated with radiation or high-dose drugs, the patient receives the harvested stem cells, which travel to the bone marrow and begin to produce new blood cells
While still searching for a match of his own, Mr Adebiyi made the trip to Nigeria with the goal of finding 10,000 donors.
He held the first drive at the Nigerian Law School in Lagos. After addressing about 400 students, he handed out information and testing kits, and wrote in his journal of the day: "I am crushed in a sea of outstretched hands. We are completely swamped. History."
Seeing the number of people who came forward ready to save lives convinced him that a registry would work.
He joined forces with two doctors at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital in Enugu - Ifeoma Okoye and Sunday Ocheni.
The greatest challenge in getting started was finding the funds to buy the necessary computers and software.
"Seun had to buy everything with his personal money," explains Dr Ocheni, while asserting that, "funds still remain our greatest challenge impeding the growth of the registry."
Dr Okoye adds to their list of challenges: Getting reliable internet access and trying to maintain an independent uninterrupted power supply.
"The main thing is, I am so passionate about it now, in a way that I was not passionate about my prestigious job on Wall Street," says Mr Adebiyi.
"For the first 26 years of my life, I had it all planned out. Then I felt that I was going to die for six months, now I am healthy again and ready to embrace life."
He has high praise for the doctors who are working with him, but hopes that one day he will be able to pay them a salary. "I don't need one because my own gratitude is enough," he adds.
Anonymous donor
Mr Adebiyi's drive and energy is fuelled by appreciation for his own donor. A Nigerian woman living in the US had a baby and found out that she could donate the umbilical cord blood to the public bank.
That simple act led to the eventual transplant that would save his life. Due to American regulations, he was unable to meet the woman or child who donated to him, but he says that he hopes "they hear my story and connect the dots".
University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital in EnuguThe University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital in Enugu is home to Africa's second bone marrow registry
Mr Adebiyi is passionate about the benefits of cord blood for African patients and the growing success of these transplants has also made him think about how the opportunity to help patients with cord blood was literally being thrown away.
"I know so many mothers whose kids have died because they couldn't find a stem cell transplant. Just across the Atlantic Ocean, there were millions of cord blood units which are being thrown away as medical waste. It is heartbreaking and so easy to fix," he says.
His team in Nigeria decided to add setting up a cord blood bank to their efforts - something that he was told by an American medical doctor "would not happen in her lifetime".
Dr Okoye disagrees, asserting that she believes that a cord blood bank will be fully functional in the next year.
"There are already significant resources in place at the teaching hospital of the College of Medicine [the proposed site]. So we feel that only modest infrastructure enhancements are needed for a cord blood bank with a minimum of cost," she says.
Mr Adebiyi also believes that the information that the bone marrow registry and cord blood bank holds will allow Nigeria to connect with international donors and patients but he is still realistic about the road ahead.

“Start Quote

He hugged me and said: 'You are the closest person I can relate to as a donor since I cannot know mine. It feels like you donated to me'”
Olabisi Bokinni
"Nigeria did its first stem cell transplant last year. There are only six doctors who can do it in the country. The US has all the doctors and facilities but not the donors."
Millions of Africans suffer from blood disorders which could be successfully treated through transplants that will be available thanks to the fruits of Mr Adebiyi's team's efforts.
As the registry is public, patients from across the world will also be able to access potential donors. To date, the Bone Marrow Registry has received requests for donor searches for patients from Ghana, Kuwait, Singapore, Nigeria and India, and three potential donors were identified for the Nigerian patients. They are currently undergoing testing to determine their full compatibility.
Ms Bokinni met Mr Adebiyi nearly a year after she learnt that her brother had survived his transplant procedure and was in recovery.
"He hugged me and said: 'You are the closest person I can relate to as a donor since I cannot know mine. It feels like you donated to me'."
Dr Ocheni emphasises that stem cell donation "is very safe". Volunteers can choose to donate directly from their bone marrow, or from peripheral blood which is similar to giving blood.
New mothers can also agree to donate their child's cord blood immediately after delivery rather than just throwing it away.
"This will lead to double satisfaction for parents - bring a baby into the world, and keep a patient alive," he suggests.
For Ms Bokinni, donating is the most important thing that you can do. "Saving someone's life is no kids' play! It is a deep and fulfilling act," she says.
"I don't know what your goal in life is, neither do I know your aspirations, but I want to let you know that I have never felt so much joy in the simple sacrifice of being able to give someone a second chance at life."
This article appeared in the final edition of the BBC Focus on Africa magazine.

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Sunday 28 October 2012

Newton on Derwent man Gary Hyde guilty over arms deal. From BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-2009374

 26 October 2012 Last updated at 16:00.



Gary HydeGary Hyde is due to be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on 23 November
An arms dealer has been convicted of helping to organise a "huge" shipment of guns and ammunition from China to Nigeria without a licence.
Gary Hyde, 43, from Newton on Derwent near York, was also convicted of concealing commission payments.
Southwark Crown Court heard how 40,000 AK-47 assault rifles, 30,000 rifles and 10,000 pistols, were shipped in 2007.
The former special constable is due to be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on 23 November.
About 32 million rounds of ammunition was imported from China between March 2006 and December 2007.

“Start Quote

Hyde was an experienced arms dealer who thought he could deliberately not comply with the law ”
Peter Millroy, HMRC
Hyde failed to follow the necessary procedure and gain permission from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, the court was told.
Hyde denied two counts of breaching the Trade in Goods (Control) Order 2003 and one charge of concealing criminal property, hiding more than $1m (£620,460) in commission payments.
Peter Millroy from HM Revenue and Customs said: "Hyde was an experienced arms dealer who thought he could deliberately not comply with the law in order to make some extra money to hide offshore.
"He knew full well that his activity required a licence but he decided not to comply with the law, and we are delighted that after an extensive investigation he has been brought to justice."
A trial held in January collapsed after the judge discharged the jury, saying the case had to "fail in law, on the particular facts of this case".
Following the collapsed trial the Court of Appeal reviewed the case.
Hyde served as a special constable with North Yorkshire Police for seven years, before leaving in 2004.
The force said it believed none of the offences took place whilst he served as a special constable.
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Friday 26 October 2012

IF IGBO LEADERS HAD QUARTER OF AWOLOWO'S VISION WE WOULD NOT BE WHERE ACHEBE SAYS WE ARE-NWAEZEIGWE

Written by Alaba Johnson on 25 October 2012
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I HAVE not yet read the controversial personal history of Chinua Achebe, and as a professional historian, I don’t really think it is ethical to speak on a work one has not read. However, I have endeavoured to read Noo Saro-Wiwa’s review of the book posted on The Guardian of London on-line. I have also read the numerous comments on the book with specific reference to the roles of Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the civil war.
I could recall that this subject of Achebe’s attack on Chief Obafemi Awolowo was the Dr. Frederick Fasehun’s welcome address to me during my meeting with him on Thursday, October 11, 2012, at his Century Hotel, Okota, to discuss the subject of Igbo Presidency in 2015. Still on the same subject matter, while en route Nsukka by Ifesinachi luxury bus, just few kilometers to Ore, I received a call from Ghana, this time by the renowned Igbo literary critic and mathematician-turned historian, Professor Chinweizu, imploring me to comment on the controversy.
Over-flogged and irrelevant subject
I have, therefore, decided to comment on a subject I strongly feel is both over-flogged and irrelevant at this point of our history. However, to the professional historian, no literary work is an end to itself, not even the one coming from such literary icon as Professor Chinua Achebe. Every work of literary art is, therefore, to the professional historian, a means to an end, a tool and source-material for the professional historian in pursuit of the end. That end is definitely the solution to the intractable political socio-economic, and allied problems of mankind.
Achebe no doubt, like other writers and commentators has done his bit of contribution towards that end. However, whether Achebe’s contribution is adjudged to be positive or negative in orientation, it remains a matter literary conjecture, since every writer is entitled to his personal opinion based on his exclusive perception of a given subject matter. In this regard, the title of the book is self-explanatory.  One does not, therefore, understand why the personal view of an individual will constitute a whole lot of an enveloping controversy. Or, could be because such a comment is coming out of the mouth of a “Professor Chinua Achebe”? Just like a Julius Caesar crossing the Rubicon, or a Mungo Park discovering the source of River Niger. I ask this question because the subject matter is no longer new, as it has over the years formed one of tools against possible Igbo-Yoruba common front against a perceived common enemy.
The fact remains, however, that the issue of Chief Awolowo’s anti-Igbo roles during the civil war is highly over-bloated with irreconcilable body of evidence. This issue was fully explained in my October 1998 Guest Lecture to the Department of
Political Science, University of Lagos, titled: “Ethnicity and the Politics of Igbo-Yoruba Relations: case of a celebration of defeat?”
In the first instance, the Igbo first lost the golden opportunity to have Chief Awolowo fully on their side when, neither General Ironsi nor Col. Ojukwu failed to see the wisdom in releasing the former from prison custody in Calabar. Chief Obafemi Awolowo had to wait for the six or seven months before he could be released and granted amnesty by General Yakubu Gowon, who subsequently elevated him.
There was no doubt that the Yoruba under the leadership of  Chief Awolowo were ready to secede along with the Igbo, had circumstances on ground not prevented the scheme. Fundamental in that circumstance was the presence of the Northern troops in Ibadan, Abeokuta and Lagos. Since the Yoruba at that time lacked the needed military presence in the army to confront the occupying forces, there was little they could have done. The Yoruba leaders had actually demanded for the withdrawal of the Federal troops from their territory to enable them carry out their scheme of secession. It was actually on account of that demand that the Federal authorities announced on Thursday, May 25, 1967 that the Northern troops would be withdrawn from the West Region.
However, that withdrawal eventually meant the withdrawal of troops at Ibadan and Abeokuta for the reinforcement of the Lagos garrison as well as for the strategic
cities of Jebba and Ilorin. Even the acting Military Governor of the Western Region at that tme, Col. Adebayo, in his subtle protest on May 26, described the presence of Northern troops at Ikeja as “this outstanding problem,” and pleaded with his people to exercise patience since he was discussing the matter with General Gowon.
It was under this charged political atmosphere that Gowon announced the
following day, May 27, the creation of the 12-State structure. That action eventually led to the fission of Yoruba minds towards secession, particularly since the indigenes of the new Lagos State saw their new status as a freedom from the domineering image of Chief Awolowo. The subsequent elevation of Chief Obafemi Awolowo to number two position was to erase the idea of a Yoruba secession.
It could also be recalled that on March 3, 1967, the Biafran leader, Col. Odumegwu-Ojukwu, then still acting on the capacity of a Regional Governor, affirmed this evident incapacitation of the West by the occupying Northern troops. Odumegwu-Ojukwu had said that both Governors of the two Southern Regions of West and Midwest were in full support of his position against the North, but could not do much because of the presence of Northern troops in their territories.
Chief Awolowo’s inability to carry out his threat of secession if the East seceded could not therefore be interpreted as an act of betrayal. Beyond the matter of sentiments, objective judgment agrees that there can never be secession without a back-up military force. Comparatively, the Yoruba had thrown a much stronger loyal support to the leadership of Nnamdi Azikiwe than the Igbo ever exhibited toward Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Thus in speaking of Awolowo’s roles in the civil war, objectivity demands that reference be made also of such Yoruba-born pro-Igbo partisans of the war, like Professor Wole Soyinka and those who chose to fight and die for Biafra like Colonels Banjo and Ademoyega.
Gruesome experiences
There was no doubt that Professor Chinua Achebe, from the accounts of his civil war experiences was a privileged Biafran citizen who only watched but never suffered the gruesome experiences of hunger, diseases and homelessness during the war. If the father of African literature actually wants to be objective concerning the conduct of the civil war, then he should first focus his literary search-light at the internal mechanisms of the conduct of the war on the side of Biafra.
In other words, if any blame were to be apportioned for the defeat of Biafra and the suffering of the Igbo masses, it cannot be targeted at external forces such as Awolowo, but at the internal elite who masterminded the failed civil war policies of the leader, like Achebe himself. One would want Professor Achebe to explain to
Nigerians in general and the Igbo in particular, what happened to the millions in foreign currency raised abroad in support of Biafra but which never got to the shores of Biafra? How much of such money were actually raised and who were those Igbo leaders of Biafra entrusted with the duty of bringing the fund to Biafra?
What also happened to the millions given to such people as Dr. K.O. Mbadiwe and Mojekwu, a relative of Odumegwu-Ojukwu for the purpose of purchasing arms and ammunition to prosecute the war? Did they not cart away with the money and never returned to Biafra until after the defeat? Where again could one place those who sold relief materials meant for the poor and suffering citizens of Biafra, when it was meant to be distributed free? Were all these atrocities against the Igbo equally masterminded by Chief Obafemi Awolowo?
Viewed critically, even the literary icon himself, acting on the capacity of Biafra’s Minister of Communication, could not have supported any policy that would have given the Federal Government undue advantage over Biafra. Even the Federal Government’s policy of an all-round twenty pounds exchange cannot be faulted by any economic theory given the undetermined value of the Biafran currency. It is important for Professor Achebe to know that the Igbo of today fully understand who their actual friends and foes are in the present Federation.
Abandoned property saga
The 1966 pogroms against the Igbo were Hausa-Fulani schemes and not those of the Yoruba. Many Igbo lived unmolested in Yorubaland throughout the war. The coup d’etat that toppled General Aguiyi-Ironsi was a Northern act and not a single Yoruba soldier was involved. The abandoned property saga did not take place in Yorubaland.
Above all, although there could exist a situation of mutual rivalries between the Igbo and Yoruba, such competitions never for once degenerated into a state of anti-Igbo riots, with countless loss of lives and property. The Igbo thus know who their friends are, and they know that the Yoruba are not their foe. In conclusion, it is important to let Professor Achebe understand one evident fact: if any Igbo leader could have one-quarter of Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s vision for the Yoruba, then the Igbo are saved the pains of recurrent political idiocy.

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Thursday 25 October 2012

Nigeria: 'Oil-gas sector mismanagement costs billions'. From BBC

25 October 2012 Last updated at 13:54

Children in a boat pass an oil pipeline head near their home in Rivers state April 2011
Despite Nigeria's oil wealth, 90% of its citizens live on less than $2 per day

Nigeria's Deadly Delta

A leaked report into Nigeria's oil and gas industry has revealed the extent of mismanagement and corruption that is costing billions of dollars each year.
The report, seen by the BBC, was commissioned by the oil minister in the wake of this year's fuel protests to probe the financial side of the sector.
It says $29bn (£18bn) was lost in the last decade in an apparent price-fixing scam involving the sale of natural gas.
It also calculated the treasury loses $6bn a year because of oil theft.
Nigeria is one of the world's biggest oil producers but most of its people remain mired in poverty.
The Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force report is one of several commissioned by the government - and follows an outcry after a parliamentary investigation uncovered a massive multi-billion fuel subsidy scam.
That had been set up after angry nationwide protests in January when the government tried to remove a fuel subsidy.
Earlier this week, a campaign was launched to clean up Nigeria's oil sector.
It was led by Patrick Dele Cole, a politician from the oil-rich Niger Delta region, who said that 90% of the stolen oil was refined in eastern Europe and Singapore.
'Staggering'
The BBC's Will Ross in Lagos says this leaked report exposes the extent of the rot in Nigeria's oil and gas industry - all the way from the awarding of contracts to the sale of refined products.

Missing billions revealed this year

  • $400bn - estimated amount of Nigeria's oil revenue stolen or misspent since independence in 1960 - World Bank's ex-vice-president for Africa, Oby Ezekwesili said in August
  • $6.8bn - the amount a fuel subsidy scam has cost Nigeria over the last two years - a parliamentary report said in April
  • $29bn - the amount lost by the treasury in the last decade in an apparent gas price-fixing scam -leaked Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force report in Octoberr
  • $6bn - the amount the treasury loses a year because of oil theft - leaked Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force report in October
It is staggering just how much money the people of Nigeria appear to be missing out on, he says.
Nigeria's Oil Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke declined to comment on the specifics of the probe but said a report compiled from several committees set up earlier in the year to investigate the oil and gas sector was in its final stages and would be presented to the president soon.
The Petroleum Revenue Special Task Force, headed by former anti-corruption chief Nuhu Ribadu, revealed in its report that losses of revenue to the treasury over apparent gas price-fixing involved dealings between Total, Eni and Shell and government officials.
The report does not suggest the companies broke the law but called for measures to be put in place to ensure all transactions are more transparent.
It said that oil and gas companies owe the treasury more than $3bn in royalties.
For the period 2005 to 2011, it said $566m was owed in signature bonuses - the fees a company is supposed to pay up front for the right to exploit an oil block.
The report looked at the issue of discretionary licences which companies do not have to bid for.
Between 2008 and 2011 it found the Nigerian government had handed out seven discretionary licences, from which $183m in signature bonuses had not been paid.
A Shell spokesman said the company would not comment as it had not yet seen the report.
'Total overhaul'
Our correspondent says it is well known that oil theft is a major problem in Nigeria, but the report says it may be reaching emergency levels as 250,000 barrels of crude oil could be being stolen every day - 10% of annual production.
The leaked report said that small-scale "pilfering" had been "endemic since at least the late 1990s", but it also said it had heard allegations about thefts from crude export terminals, tank farms, refinery storage tanks, jetties and ports.
"Submissions to the Task Force alleged that officials and private actors disguise theft through manipulation of meters and shipping documents," the report said.
"Yet there is also evidence that members of the security forces condone and, in some cases, profit from theft. The void in effective security likewise appears to increasingly hand over control of coastal and inland waterways to undesirable elements."
The investigation showed that 40% of refined products - either refined in Nigeria or imported - currently being channelled through state-owned pipelines are lost to theft and sabotage.
Mr Ribadu's investigation calls for a total overhaul of the industry with an oil sector transparency law requiring all companies to report all payments and publish all contracts and licences.
The Task Force also wants a special financial crimes unit to be established specifically for the oil and gas sector.

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Nigeria's Deadly Delta

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Monday 22 October 2012

Laughing on his private jet -


--the £93m pastor accused of exploiting British worshippers 


A church run by a controversial multi-millionaire African preacher has been accused of ‘cynical exploitation’ after its British branch received £16.7 million in donations from followers who were told that God would give them riches in return.
Followers are ferried in double-decker shuttle buses to the church, handed slips inviting them to make debit card payments, and are even told obeying the ministry’s teachings will make them immune from illness.
Today’s Mail on Sunday revelations about the Winners’ Chapel movement have prompted the Charity Commission to review the charitable status  of the church – one of the fastest-growing in the UK.
Winners’ Chapel is part of a worldwide empire of evangelical ministries run by Nigeria’s wealthiest preacher David Oyedepo, who has an estimated £93 million fortune, a fleet of private jets and a Rolls-Royce Phantom. 
revelations about the Winners¿ Chapel movement have prompted the Charity Commission to review the charitable status of the church ¿ one of the fastest-growing in the UK.
Plenty to smile about; Preacher David Oyedepo of the Winners Chapel movement aboard one of his private jets. He also owns a Rolls Royce Phantom
Dubbed ‘The Pastorpreneur’, he was accused earlier this year of slapping the face of a young woman he said was a witch. The assault case was struck out but is being appealed.
Branches of the church have sprung up in major UK cities in a huge recruitment drive centred on Mr Oyedepo’s ‘prosperity gospel’. This claims that congregants who make regular donations and pay tithes – a ten per cent levy on their income – will be rewarded financially by God.
Followers are urged to target vulnerable people such as the lonely, the sick, the homeless and the suicidal as potential candidates for conversion.
Last night, Labour MP Paul Flynn said Winners’ Chapel was cynically exploiting supporters. ‘They [Winners’ Chapel] are making clearly spurious claims and it seems to be a cynical exploitation of the gullible,’ he said.
Referring to the slapping incident, Mr Flynn added: ‘What is also alarming is the reported violence and the lack of respect for the status of women. It’s taking us back to a previous age of ignorance and prejudice that we all thought the church had escaped.’ 
Caught on camera: Video of Mr Oyedepo striking a young 'witch' across the face in front of a congregation
Caught on camera: Video of Mr Oyedepo striking a young 'witch' across the face in front of a congregation
This newspaper’s investigation can further disclose:
  • Congregants are handed a payment slip requesting payments using cheque, cash or debit card when they enter London’s Winners’ Chapel.
  • Donations to the ministry in England almost doubled from £2.21 million to £4.37 million between 2006 and 2010.
  • Mr Oyedepo’s superchurch in Nigeria received £794,000 or 73 per cent of the charitable donations paid out by the British Winners’ Chapel between 2007 and 2010. This was despite claims in Africa that he is enriching himself at the expense of his devotees.
  • The registered charity has spent £6.81 million on evangelism and ‘praise, worship and fellowship’.
  • The church’s ‘Joseph Squad’ preaches in British prisons and has a weekly broadcast named ‘Liberation Hour’ on satellite and cable TV here.
In the past three years, Winners’ Chapel churches have been established in Liverpool, Birmingham, Leeds and Bradford, adding to those in London, Manchester, Dublin and Glasgow.
An undercover Mail on Sunday reporter attended Sunday services  at Winners’ Chapel’s ‘London HQ’  in Dartford, Kent, which attracts 1,000 congregants – chiefly African and Caribbean immigrants. It is run like ‘a business conference’ by Mr Oyedepo’s son, David Oyedepo Jnr. Packed buses deliver singing worshippers from South-East London, Essex and Kent to the huge auditorium.
The reporter saw a payment slip being given to every person entering the church encouraging them to donate money by cheque or cash or to fill in a form with their debit card details. The slip said tithes should be paid separately using a ‘Kingdom Investment Booklet’ and the reporter was informed that payments could also be made by phone. A pastor told the worshippers: ‘You shall be financially promoted after this service in Jesus’s name if you are ready to honour the Lord therefore with all your givings, your tithes, your offerings, your Kingdom investment, your sacrifices.’
Congregants were told to fill in their slips and hold them above their heads while the donations were blessed.
Caught on camera: Video of Mr Oyedepo striking a young 'witch' across the face in front of a congregation
One of the fleet: A jet belonging to Mr Oyedepo - he has at least two that he bought with his huge fortune
The service was interspersed with testimonies. ‘I received a bill from  the bank that I didn’t understand, so I prayed,’ said one congregant. ‘A few days later, the bank wrote to apologise for their mistake – Hallelujah!’ ‘Hallelujah,’ the audience shouted back.
Congregants were told they could gain favour by persuading others to follow Mr Oyedepo’s teachings. His son said: ‘Look around you. Someone is sick and already wishing he or she were dead, that is a fruit ripe to harvest. Someone is confounded and considering suicide as an option, that is another fruit that is ripe to harvest.
‘Someone else is lonely and wondering if there is any future for him, that is another fruit ripe to harvest.
‘Also there are many men and women, young and old that are homeless, these are fruits ripe to harvest.’
The reporter was taken, with 20 other new recruits, to a room where preachers gave sermons claiming acceptance of the Lord would prevent them ever being ill or suffering misfortune.
The Mail on Sunday has seen video footage of Mr Oyedepo striking a woman across the face and condemning her to hell after she said she was a ‘witch for Jesus’. He attacked her in a Winners’ Chapel superchurch, believed to be in Nigeria, in front of worshippers. A separate video shows him saying: ‘I slapped a witch here last year!’
In May, he was sued for £800,000 over the alleged assault. The case was struck out – a decision which is now reported to have been appealed.
The Winners’ Chapel movement, also known as the Living Faith Church, has hundreds of churches in Nigeria and across Africa, the Middle East, the UK and the US.
Mr Oyedepo has received fierce criticism in Africa. One Nigerian journalist accused him of ‘leading a growing list of pastorpreneurs – church founders exploiting the passion and emotion that Christianity commands to feather their nests’.
Caught on camera: Video of Mr Oyedepo striking a young 'witch' across the face in front of a congregation
Marriage: Seen here with his wife Faith, Mr Oyedepo has a son who runs services at the chapel's London headquarters
Catholic Cardinal Anthony Okogie criticised such preachers for placing materialism above Jesus’s message. He reportedly said: ‘They have been skinning the flock, taking out of the milk of the flock.’
Among Mr Oyedepo’s fleet of aircraft are said to be a Gulfstream 1 and Gulfstream 4 private jets. It is also claimed he and his wife, Faith, travel in expensive Jeeps flanked by convoys of siren-blaring vehicles. He is the senior pastor of Faith Tabernacle, a 50,000-seat auditorium in Lagos reputed to be the largest church in the world, and runs a publishing company that distributes books carrying his message across the world.
His other business interests span manufacturing, petrol stations,  bakeries, water purification factories, recruitment, a university, restaurants, supermarkets and real estate. The latest addition is a commercial airline named Dominion Airlines.
A Charity Commission spokesman said: ‘The Charity Commission is  currently assessing what, if any,  regulatory role there is to play with regard to the complaints made against the World Mission Agency. It is important to clarify that this does not constitute an investigation at this stage.’
Winners’ Chapel administrator Tunde Disu declined to comment.



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AFOLABI OGUNDE: WHERE UK’S DAILY MAIL GOOFED ON BISHOP DAVID OYEDEPO AND WINNERS MINISTRIES, Written by Via Business News on 21 October 2012


 

 
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Bishop David Oyedepo
When the British begun to colonize Africa just few centuries ago, they saw nothing wrong with using the Gospel of Christ to bamboozle our ancestors into surrendering their lands and resources over to Her Majesty’s government; now fast-forward to modern times where African pastors are some of the most influential persons on Earth, it seems the detractors have arrived in busloads.
The Daily Mail, one of the United Kingdom’s most widely read publications is the detractor of the day. Perhaps somebody needs to hand them a copy of the King James version of the Bible, or maybe a contemporary version of the material would suffice.
Prosperity ministries like Living Faith, popularly known as Winners, will continue to generate a lot of confusion-based controversy in places like the United Kingdom where the people increasingly are distanced from the doctrine of the gospel (the Word of God).
Many ex-Christians and Christianity bashers always cite the fact that Jesus Christ was humble and didn’t fly in private jets or ride in luxury cars; they always remember how Jesus rode on an ass. Well the gospel also informs us that he made himself poor so that we could become rich. 2nd Corinthians 8:9 says “For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich”.
Church attendance in British churches are at an all time low, and many of the British church buildings are now tourist centers and not places where men go to fellowship with God. The Africans who were first taught Christianity by British missionaries in the 19th century have now mastered the gospel in a way that certifies the Great Commission given to men by Christ. I can imagine how the Archbishop of Canterbury would be ticked off about this, or the Bishops of Reading, Newcastle, Coventry and Birmingham, just to name a few.
Truth is African Pentecostalism is the most successful and fastest growing branch of the Church of Christ world-wide, and the scandal prone churches of the West are uneasy considering the trend.
Statistics show, “regular church attendance in the United Kingdom stands at 6% of the population with the average age of the attendee being 51. This shows a decline in church attendance since 1980 when regular attendance stood at 11% with an average age of 37. It is predicted that by 2020, attendance will be around 4% with an average age of 56.This decline in church attendance has forced many churches to close down across the United Kingdom with the Church of England alone being forced to close 1,500 churches between 1969 and 2002. Their fates include dereliction, demolition and residential conversion.”
The statistics paint a picture whereby funds are being generated by African churches where attendance is on the increase, and diminishing in British churches where attendance is on the decline.  It’s easy to see how the Charities Commission can get sidetracked and misinformed. However it would be a violation of several international and divine laws for Her Majesty’s regulatory bodies to revoke the status of a faith based institution.
The Roman Catholic Church is arguably one of the richest institutions on the face of the planet. Africa’s prosperity ministries/churches are rapidly amassing the wealth that took centuries for some religious organizations to acquire. There is bound to be a conflict of interest as there are many open and hidden interests that would not want to see this scale of empowerment for the African man.
Living Faith ministries owns at last count, three universities in Nigeria. In less than a decade some of the graduates are already working for globally recognized institutions like the World Bank, Goldman Sachs, KPMG, Deloitte, Mobil, Total, Chevron and a long list of other Fortune 500 companies. It is understandable why some anti-progress machineries are in motion, what is befuddling is how one of Britain’s most widely read newspapers goes about misinforming its readers about a progressive faith-based spiritual organization that is ordained by God.
The Daily Mail has been sued severally for libel in the past and has had to cough up millions of pound sterling in damages to the victims of its occasionally leaky mouth. One would think that the publication would have done legitimately not to publish the junk it did on Sunday. Including in the article was this, “Followers (of Living Faith) are urged to target vulnerable people such as the lonely, the sick, the homeless and the suicidal as potential candidates for conversion.”
To the undiscerning eye, Winners will be made to look more like Exploiters, whereas the truth remains that the writers are obviously not of the Christian faith and are just looking for a story controversial enough to sell their newspapers. Christ did tell his servants to minister unto the down-trodden and the bed-ridden and the poor. A quick fact check of the New Testament would have saved the Mail this ignorance that is sure to cost them.
The obvious remains yet to be stated and it’s as simple as this, before the journalists at the Mail rush to the press again, they should patiently pick up a copy of their bibles, dust it thoroughly open, and read some of the pages. After all, every man is entitled to have freedom in his religion, and in the way he thinks about God and HIS prophets. There should not be an abuse of this right by anybody, not even the Fourth Estate.
The only intelligent portion of the article was after it, in the comments section. A commentator from  Grove Park South East London said, “Are any members of his congregation complaining about the money they pay this man and his family? Has any member of his congregation complained that they did not receive the ‘blessings’ they prayed for or that the devil was not knocked out off that woman when she received that blow to the face? Has any members of his congregation been convicted of any criminal activity? If the answer to those questions is “no” then really what harm is this so-called Man of God causing?”

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