A single mother of two, Sandra Okpara, has recovered N1,640,200 which she mistakenly transferred to an account linked to Pastor Jerry Eze’s Streams of Joy International.
Okpara recovered the money on Saturday, a day after a video she posted on social media appealing for help to trace the funds attracted widespread attention.
In the video, posted on Friday, she explained that the money was meant for payments to other people and appealed to anyone connected with the church to help her recover it.
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“This money is not my money. I cannot do offering of 1,640,200. Please help me trace the accounts,” she said.
Okpara said she had earlier transferred N1,000 as an offering before attempting to transfer more than N1.6 million to a Zenith Bank account.
According to her, she inadvertently selected the wrong account while making the larger transaction.
“My hand just clicked that one. Before God and man, it was erroneous,” she said.
She said she first approached Zenith Bank after discovering the error but could not recover the money.
She later reported the matter to Moniepoint, where she said she was informed that a court order could be required to facilitate the recovery.
Okpara said she subsequently tried to reach the church through Pastor Jerry Eze’s online prayer platform but was unable to establish direct contact.
She said she only realised the mistake after opening 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.
Following her unsuccessful attempts to recover the money, Okpara took to social media to appeal to members of the public to share her video and help her reach the church.
The appeal eventually came to the attention of Streams of Joy International, which said it contacted her after seeing the video.
In a statement posted on X on Saturday, the church said it investigated the transaction and returned the money.
“We have transferred her money back to her,” the church said.
The church added that it had not received any call, email, direct message, or formal complaint from Okpara before she posted the video.
It said that after becoming aware of the appeal, it immediately attempted to contact her through the phone number provided and its direct-message channel.
Okpara later confirmed that the money had been refunded.
“100 per cent,” she said when asked if she had received the funds.
She said a member of the church’s staff contacted her at about 6:22 am on Saturday, after which the money was returned.
Okpara explained that her decision to make the matter public was aimed at getting assistance to recover the funds and was not intended to damage the reputation of Pastor Jerry Eze or the church.
“That’s the power of social media. It’s not because I want to do it to tarnish Pastor Jerry’s image,” she said.