Founder of Bethesda Christian Centre, BCC, Pretoria, South Africa, Pastor Clement Ibe, has denied alleged mismanagement of the church’s finance and property.
The church leadership in a statement co-signed by Pastor Ibe denounced a recent report which was believed to have been facilitated by a splinter group of the church, the BCC Concerned Group Task Team.
The BBC group which question Ibe’s management of the church’s funds and the true ownership of the church’s headquarters building, also accused the Nigerian pastor unilaterally selling the property.
However, the statement maintained that the pastor was being falsely accused by the group who had earlier filed reports against the church and its leader with the South Africa Police’s Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, DCPI, and the Social Development Department, SDD.
The church also noted that the continued social media attacks and death threats on Ibe were partly the reason he and his family temporarily moved to the United States of America, USA.
The BCC group’s letter to the SDD alleged that monies were laundered to fund a property project worth R90 million registered under Ibe’s company, World Outreach, without the church members’ approval.
But the church leadership said an independent investigation by a South African law firm, Snyman Attorneys, which was engaged to authenticate the ownership of the church’s property in contention, has absorbed Ibe of any wrongdoing.
Snyman Attorneys in their report dated November 16, 2021, concluded that “all registrations are legal and the ownership of the property has been done in a manner that would still make Bethesda Christian Centre NPO the true beneficiary of the property.”