A single mother of two, Sandra Okpara, has recovered N1,640,200 she accidentally transferred to an account associated with Pastor Jerry Eze’s Streams of Joy International, following a social media appeal that gained widespread attention.
Okpara had disclosed in a video posted online on Friday that the money was meant for other people and did not belong to her. She consequently appealed to individuals connected with the church to assist in tracing and recovering the funds.
She said, “This money is not my money. I cannot do offering of 1,640,200. Please help me trace the accounts.”
According to PUNCH Online on Saturday, Okpara explained that she had earlier transferred N1,000 as an offering on Friday before attempting to make another transfer of more than N1.6m to a Zenith Bank account.
My hand just clicked that one. Before God and man, it was erroneous,” she said.
She said her first attempt to retrieve the money was through Zenith Bank, but the effort did not yield any result.
“I went to Moniepoint; they lodged the complaint, but they were asking for a court order.
“I don’t know how to contact them. I went to Pastor Jerry’s online prayer platform,” she said.
Okpara said she did not immediately notice that she had sent the money to the wrong account and only discovered the error after checking the transfer receipt.
“I didn’t see it. I just made the transfer. After I did it, I had to open the receipt. I was screaming. I had to go to the toilet. I urinated. I came out. I looked at it that there was no hope,” she said.
After exhausting the initial avenues available to her, Okpara resorted to social media, appealing to the public to circulate her video and help establish contact with the church or trace the transferred funds.
The appeal subsequently came to the attention of Streams of Joy International, which said it reached out to Okpara after seeing the video.
In a statement posted on X on Saturday, the church said it investigated the matter, confirmed the transaction and returned the money to Okpara.
“We have transferred her money back to her,” Streams of Joy International said.
The church also stated that its direct-message platforms and official contact channels were available to members of the public who needed to report mistaken transactions.
According to the church, it had not received any telephone call, email, direct message or formal complaint from Okpara before she released the video online.
“Upon becoming aware of the video, we immediately attempted to contact her through the phone number provided and via direct message,” the church said.
It added that Okpara later responded to its outreach, after which the transaction was reversed following the required investigation and confirmation.
Confirming the development to PUNCH Online after receiving the refund, Okpara said the money had been fully returned to her.
“100 per cent,” she said when asked if she had been refunded.
She explained that the refund was made at about 6:22 am on Saturday after a member of the church’s staff contacted her.
“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 member called me, and I was refunded,” she said.
Okpara stressed that her decision to make the matter public was not motivated by any intention to discredit Pastor Jerry Eze or 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.
