A prophet, Barr Ejike Nwachukwu has admonished his fellow pastors not to pray for internet fraudsters, popularly known as Yahoo boys, saying that there was no difference between them and thieves.
Nwachukwu, head pastor of Rhema Deliverance Ministry, who spoke at the church’s parish in Awka during a special Sunday service said there was a growing trend of internet fraudsters visiting pastors for prayers for them to succeed in their plots.
The senior pastor also lamented that internet fraud, which is most popularly known as yahoo yahoo in Nigeria, was fast spreading, and that young people now believe that there was no better way to get rich quicker than to join internet scammers.
“If you are a yahoo boy, you are a thief, and there is nothing different between you and an armed robber.
“You collect people’s money under the guise of doing business with them and you disappear, and you inflict a lot of suffering on them, to the point that sometimes they even die and you come to me for prayers. I will not pray for you,” the prophet rebuked.
He urged his fellow pastors to shun such young men, saying that the recent trend was for the fraudsters to seek out men of God, who they present with huge cash as seed faith, asking for prayers to succeed in their plots, with a promise to bring more.
“That is what is now happening in our society. Every young person you see wants to make it, but in trying to do so, they enter into internet fraud, and when they have started deceiving someone, they come to pastors for prayers.
“Two young men came to my office the other day with N2million, they said it was for seed offering, and that they had a business they were believing God to materialize soon, and that the money is for seed offering.
“I looked at them, two young boys with N2million. I asked them what business they were expecting and they said it was a deal, and that they would bring more money to me once the deal paid off, and even promised to buy me an SUV.
“I prayed and the Lord revealed to me that it was internet fraud, and I told them so and they confirmed it was true. I walked them out of my office, but only one left and returned with extra N2million, in the hope that if the money was big, I would accept, but I sent two of them out.”
Nwachukwu lamented that lots of Nigerian youths were very creative, but instead of channeling their creativity into something useful, they preferred to indulge in fraud. He wondered how two young people would have N4million and cannot use it to begin a meaningful venture?
He added that pastors who accepted such monies were bringing curse upon themselves, insisting that fraudsters were not different from killers.
