How woman used social media to recover N1.64m mistakenly transferred to pastor Jerry Eze’s church

A woman, Sandra Okpara, has recovered N1,640,200 which she mistakenly transferred to an account linked to Pastor Jerry Eze’s Streams of Joy International.

The church refunded the money on Saturday, a day after Okpara’s appeal for help went viral on social media.

Okpara had appealed to members of the church and the public to help her trace the money, explaining that the N1.64 million did not belong to her and was meant for payments she needed to make.

In a video shared on Friday, she said she could not have intentionally given such an amount as an offering.

“This money is not my money. I cannot do an offering of 1,640,200. Please help me trace the accounts,” she said.

Okpara explained that she had earlier transferred N1,000 as an offering before attempting to send more than N1.6 million to a Zenith Bank account.

However, she said she mistakenly selected the wrong account while making the second transfer.

“My hand just clicked that one. Before God and man, it was erroneous,” she said.

According to her, she first contacted Zenith Bank after discovering the mistake but could not recover the money.

She later reported the matter to Moniepoint, where she was told that a court order was required before the money could be recovered.

Okpara said she then tried to reach Pastor Jerry Eze’s online prayer platform for assistance.

She said she did not immediately realise that the money had gone to the wrong account until she checked the transaction receipt.

“I didn’t see it. I just made the transfer. After I did it, I had to open the receipt. I was screaming,” she said.

After failing to recover the money through the banks, Okpara turned to social media, hoping that her video would reach people who could help her.

The appeal eventually caught the attention of Streams of Joy International.

In a statement, the church said Okpara had not contacted it through a phone call, email, direct message or formal complaint before the video was published.

The church said it normally investigates reports of mistaken transactions and immediately began looking into Okpara’s case after becoming aware of her appeal.

It said its team contacted her through the phone number she provided and through social media.

After speaking with Okpara, the church said it investigated the transaction and confirmed her claim.

Streams of Joy International announced on Saturday that the money had been returned.

“We have transferred her money back to her,” the church said.

Okpara later confirmed that she had received the full amount.

Asked whether she had been refunded, she replied, “100 per cent.”

She said a staff member of the church contacted her at about 6:22 am on Saturday and the money was subsequently returned.

Okpara also explained why she decided to make the matter public.

“I had to do the video to push out for people to share it, and it happened. And to the glory of God, around 6.22 this morning, one of their staff members called me, and I was refunded,” she said.

She stressed that her decision to seek public help was not aimed at damaging Pastor Jerry Eze’s reputation or that of Streams of Joy International.

“That’s the power of social media. It’s not because I want to do it to tarnish Pastor Jerry’s image,” she said.

Dear Vows