Pastor charges $700 fee to ‘take people to heaven’

An evangelist is in trouble after telling people he knows of a gate leading to heaven from south-western Nigeria that he can show them, for a fee.

Pastor Ade Abraham was reported to Police by one of his followers, who said the pastor had charged him 310,000 naira ($750; £600) to see the supposed site in Araromi-Ugbeshi town, Ekiti state.

The cleric admitted to the BBC that he had made the statement about heaven’s gate, saying it was “the God he serves” who revealed it to him to try the faith of his church members, but says he has not received any payment.

The Christian Association of Nigeria has released a statement disowning Pastor Ade Abraham, and Ekiti state Police have collected written statements from members of his church and launched an investigation.

Pastor Ade Abraham’s church was originally based in Kogi state then Kaduna state, before moving southwards with his followers to a camp he built in Ekiti state.

The parishioner who reported him to the Police has since moved back home to Kaduna state, but his wife refused to join him, saying the “rapture” is coming soon.

But the couple, who do not wish to be named, told the BBC they speak to each other on the phone every day.

Pastor Ade, also known as Noah Abraham, recently went viral with a video in which he asked worshippers to tell their relatives living overseas to contribute money towards developing his church.

-BBC

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ABOUT: Nana Kwesi Coomson

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An Entrepreneur, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Communications Executive and Philanthropist. Editor-in-Chief of www.233times.com. A Senior Journalist with Ghanaian Chronicle Newspaper. An alumnus of Adisadel College where he read General Arts. His first degree is in Bachelor of Arts - Political Science (major) and History (minor) from the University of Ghana. He holds MSc in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Energy with Public Relations (PR) from the Robert Gordon University in the United Kingdom. He is a 2018 Mandela Washington Fellow who studied at Clark Atlanta University in USA on the Business and Entrepreneurship track.

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