Woman recovers N1.64m mistakenly transferred to Jerry Eze’s church

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

Okpara had appealed for help on social media after discovering the error, saying the money belonged to people she was expected to pay. She said she had intended to transfer the funds to a Zenith Bank account but mistakenly sent them to the church-linked account.

She said she only realised the mistake after checking the transfer receipt and subsequently approached her bank and Moniepoint for help. According to her, she was told that a court order was required to recover the money.

Okpara later posted a video online appealing to people to help trace the funds and contact the church. The video went viral and eventually caught the attention of Streams of Joy International.

In a statement on X on Saturday, the church said it investigated the matter after becoming aware of the video and confirmed that the transaction was erroneous.

“We have transferred her money back to her,” the church said, adding that its direct-message channels and official contact lines remained open for reports of erroneous transactions.

The church said it had not received any call, email, direct message or formal complaint from Okpara before her video was published. It added that it contacted her after seeing the video and reversed the transaction after the necessary investigation and confirmation.

Confirming the refund, Okpara said a member of the church’s staff contacted her at about 6:22am on Saturday and the N1.64m was returned. She added that her decision to make the video was aimed at getting help to recover the money and was not intended to damage the reputation of the church or its founder.