PHOTOS: Lavish Lifestyles Of Nigerian Pastors Living In London Exposed

Pastors Matthew Ashimolowo and Alex Omokudu are very popular pastors both home and abroad and as the leaders of Kingsway International Christian Center and Victorious Pentecostal Assembly respectively, they have a lot of influence.

Amidst the controversy surrounding tithing, the lifestyles of pastors has come under scrutiny in recent times with more and more people asking why Pastors live such lavish lifestyles presumably on the money congregants donate in tithes and offering while many of these same congregants are barely getting by.

An expose piece in a UK tabloid, the Sun, delved a little deeper and report that Pastors Ashimolowo and Alex Omokudu have sprawling mansions allegedly from the money that comes from congregants.

On Pastor Omokudu the piece reads in part;

Pastor Alex Omokudu claims to be “heavily anointed with healing powers from God” and his church takes more than £1million a year in donations from his devoted following.

Omokudu moved to the UK from Nigeria in 2002 and launched Victorious Pentecostal Assembly (VPA) three years later.

Today, the 53-year-old – who is called Daddy by his flock – owns a lavish £2million nine-bedroom mansion in leafy Hornchurch, Essex.

The lavish gated mansion includes five reception rooms, a swimming pool, a sauna and a 250ft garden.

He also owns a second £600,000 property a short distance away.

Despite his luxurious lifestyle, his website states: “My wealth belongs to the people, whatever I have I give out. People are suffering and need help.”

Meanwhile, worshippers are effectively leaned on to empty their pockets to ‘the God of VPA’.

The main church in Barking, East London, is attended by around 5,000 worshippers every week and lies within one of the most deprived areas in the UK.

VPA also operates in run-down parts of Birmingham, Manchester, Bradford and Luton.

The report continued;

But while vowing to serve the congregation who hand over £1m-a-year, Omokudu also personally takes an annual £102,000 in rent for the church they worship in.

Our investigation found Omokudu bought the property for £1m with the help of a loan from London-based Kenyan national called Kennedy Kulei.

The pastor – who previously described separation as a sin – divorced from his wife of 15 years Patricia last year and three months later married a Russian woman nearly 30 years his junior.

He explained the decision to his followers, saying in an interview: “I have already remarried. I did not want to remarry but God said I should get out of it and consoled me.”

 

 

As for Pastor Ashimolowo, the report claimed that he lives rent free in a £1.1m nine-bedroom home in Romford, Essex, owned by the church.

the report says

Matthew Ashimolwo, 65, launched Kingsway International Christian Centre in 1992 from a rented hall.

Twenty-five years later the church also has £16.4m in assets, £500,000 in the bank and rakes in more than £8m in revenue a year.

It continues

KICC – which mainly operates in Walthamstow and the recently-acquired ‘Prayer City’ building in Chatham, Kent –  takes £6.3m a year from tithing, where the congregation gives up 10 per cent of its salary.

The church also has an army of 1,000 volunteers who provide it with more than 300,000 hours of free labour, worth more than £2m-a-year.

Documents obtained by The Sun show the property was purchased by the charity with no mortgage.

The Nigerian-born pastor lives with wife Yemisi, 58, who is also a senior pastor at the church and believed to earn more than £60,000-a-year from her role.

The couple owns a second £600,000 home in Grays, Essex, currently lived in by their son.

Ashimolowo has previously been found by the Charity Commission to have used church funds to pay for a £120,000 birthday party for himself at a London hotel, an £80,000 new Mercedes and a £13,000 Florida timeshare.

He was also paid around £50,000-a-year by the church for ‘pastoral services’ before the 2005 probe found he had flouted charity rules by being a trustee and paying himself a salary.

 

This will bring to the fore again the conversation about pastors and lavish lifestyles. While advocates such as Daddy Freeze have claimed that a lot of the tithes have gone into the pastor’s pocket and that people should consider alternative means of tithing, some of the pastors have defended their wealth stating that they have profitable businesses that are separate from the church through which they earn their wealth.