Crisis rocks ECWA Church in Abuja, Pastor enmeshed in scandal

By Ukpono Ukpong

Amidst the crisis that has engulfed one of the biggest churches in Jos, the Headquarters of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) which is currently in court, tension is currently building as one of its churches in Abuja is enmeshed in yet another embroil over an alleged financial indiscretion and maladministration by the Senior Pastor of the church.

According to a petition to the Headquarters of ECWA, signed by eleven concerned members of the local church, the stewardship of the Senior Pastor, ECWA Wuse II, Rev. Dr Nash Azaki has been under serious scrutiny.

The petition alleged overwhelming financial indiscretion and administration by the Senior Pastor of which they also accused the leadership of the church of failing to act despite being brought to their knowledge.

The petition alleged that Rev Azaki started violating the financial guidelines and bylaws of ECWA within the first two months of his appointment as the Senior Pastor of the church.

As a result of his “financial indiscipline coupled with his amateur administrative approach”, the petitioners noted that the population of the assembly has depleted from over 3,000 to about 1,500 members within a space of two years of his stewardship.

It also revealed that Azaki’s impudence led him to fraudulently obtain two debit cards with which he accessed the church’s Naira and Dollar accounts and this was done without prerequisite approval of the Church Board as specified in ECWA Bylaws.

The petitioners said that “the Senior Pastor withdraws cash from ATM (sometimes he sent people) and spent church funds using the debit card without the knowledge or approval of Local Church Board (LCB)”.

Confirming that his actions were gross misconduct and in breach of the ECWA Bylaws, it was learned some Elders collected and destroyed the two debit cards, but the Senior Pastor has continued to explore other illegal means, which include, giving verbal instruction to one of the church’s banks for a release of N4 million of the church funds without following due process.

The Cleric who is currently in the eyes of the storm over his maladministration was said to have also been promoted and posted to ECWA Wuse II to head two other Pastors are are his seniors in the ministry while he was still a student in the US. This was said to have breached ECWA Bylaws and Ministerial protocols too.

It was gathered that the Cleric’s indiscipline which has adversely affected the Church’s spiritual well-being and even financial status, has continued unabated due to his alleged links with a certain cabal in the Headquarters of ECWA.

In the petition, it was also alleged that his indiscipline and impunity were traceable to the wrong process that imposed him over his seniors in the ministry.

According to the petition, Rev. Azaki was ordained in 2019 and posted to ECWA Wuse II to head the two pastors who were ordained in 2016 and 2017 respectively.

A reliable source in the Church who pleaded anonymity confirmed that soon after the embattled Cleric assumed duties in the local church in 2020, there was an unprecedented exodus of the youthful population of the church membership due to several allegations and complaints against him.

Another letter also obtained during the investigation revealed that “the current state of affairs in the Local Church Board was caused by the failure of the Local Church Board to carry out due diligence on Rev. (Dr.) Azaki as all previous LCBs had done for incoming Pastors.”

When approached with the allegations, the embattled Cleric neither denied nor admitted to being guilty of the accusations.

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Instead of giving his responses or defending himself, he invited the Church’s Secretary to respond on his behalf and agreed that such responses suffice as his own.

On his part, the Church Secretary, Elder Elder Musa Aduwak, said all the issues of concern raised in the document by the aggrieved members had been resolved during a series of meetings held with them.

However, the petitioners have said that the issues persisted because they were not handled transparently, as it came up again during the church congress on August 2, 2020, after it is supposed to have been resolved.