A tithe donor whose identity has been made anonymous by a local church, NKST Church, ‘Non go Kristu U Sudan hen Tiv’ (which means, the Church of Christ Amongst the Tiv) in Makurdi, Benue State, shocked church members when they offered N42 million to the church as tithe. The tithe was reportedly paid into the UBA bank account of the church.
When some church members heard of the tithe, they spread the news to other members of the public who were annoyed that the church got such donation while their salaries hadn’t been paid by the Government for months.
The reason residents got aggravated by the tithe was because they thought the donor was a government official.
The resident pastor of the church, Dr. Frederick Ikyaan, initially denied that such money was credited into the Church’s account.
However, a copy of the church’s quarterly financial report, from January 2017 to March 2017, showed the credit of N42 million tithe to the church in January 2017. Making the donation the highest single offering from an individual for the quarter.
After the financial report was revealed, Pastor Dr. Frederick Ikyaan admitted they receive the donation, adding that his initial denial was based on the allegations that the donor was an appointee of the Benue State Government. He said:
”I still stand by my words that the person that gave us that money is not an appointee of the state government. In fact, he does not even stay in Benue but is an indigene of the state.”
Adding that it wasn’t a crime for the church to receive tithe in such amount, insisting that the church has nothing to hide.
Residents of the community think the donor must be a govt official and insisted that they needed to know the legitimacy of the person’s income. Arguing that for the donor to have donated N42 Million to the church as tithe, that means they must have made an income of N420 million in the month that they made that donation.
The church is still keeping mute, refusing to reveal the donor’s name.