The leadership of Bethesda Christian Centre (BCC) founded by Pastor Clement Ibe in 1996 in Pretoria, South Africa has rejected allegations of property misappropriation and embezzlement of R90million against the Nigerian-born cleric.
It described reports of the allegations by a South-African newspaper as “false narratives”.
The reports, the leadership alleged, emanated from a suspicious faction of local members bent on removing the pastor from his position.
A statement by the church’s headquarters questioned the motive of the South African newspaper in its April 3 report.
BCC called the article “biased, spiteful, villainous and most regrettably, laced with hallmarks of inadequate investigation by the journalist.’’
“It is worthy of note that our Senior pastor received an email from an un-recognised personal Gmail account on a weekend (Saturday) with a line of accusatorial questions that were further saddled with putative deductions quite demeaning of a journalist from such a highly rated media outfit,” the statement noted, adding the proof of “bias and questionable professionalism” was that the newspaper report was published “with no further investigation, a practice quite alien to the basics of journalism.”
The church asserted the allegations cited by the newspaper evidently originated from a Twitter post back in October 2021, which claimed that Ibe had fled South Africa with up to R300 million supposedly earned from selling off the church headquarters.
The statement described the allegation “another inordinate belief.”
The report cited some aggrieved members of the church identifying themselves as ‘BCC Concerned Group Task Team’ had filed a report in December 2021 with the South African Police Services Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) and Department of Social Development in South Africa, calling to question Ibe’s conduct as lead pastor of the church.
This group, the report said, raised questions around the management of the church’s finances over the last 20 years.
A number of posts on Twitter and Facebook called for investigation of the pastor by authorities because he was a Nigerian who could not be trusted.
“But Nigerians, I will never trust them even if Jesus was Nigerian I will never accept him actually I’d be the Anti -Christ is Jesus was Nigerian. We’d be scammed and they’d make us carry the Cross instead of him carrying the Cross himself (sic),” a Facebook user Larry Matlala had written.
Pastor Ibe has also reportedly received numerous death threats for himself and family members.
In response to the alleged sale of the church facility by Pastor Ibe, which was the primary cause of the agitation, the statement asserted the property in question still belonged to the church.
According to the statement, a resolution was reached in 2005 “to purchase the land on which the new facility is situated, and most importantly, on behalf of Bethesda Christian Centre under the name of World Outreach, which is owned by Bethesda Business Foundation.”
World Outreach is not “alienated from BCC”, the statement said, noting that Pastor Ibe and his team had clarified this position numerous times in the past.
However, BCC leadership expressed doubts over the supposed good intentions of the BCC Concerned Group Task Team, which it said comprises former members of BCC whose objective is to “spread seeds of confusion and spite.”
The church’s leaders claimed the Concerned Group Task Team exposed an ulterior intention when the agitators purportedly used the church’s letterhead for internal and external correspondence without authorisation by the church leadership, an action deemed “condemnable and portends criminality” by the church.
BCC leadership has asserted there is no evidence of wrongdoing in its operations.
“We will continue to stay focused on the word of God and preach the gospel to the souls that are in need of guidance, especially during this trying time,” the statement reads.