How church money turn to paper in jos

Fear and confusion gripped residents of Hwolshe
in Jos, when N300, 000 church collection
suddenly turned to a bundle of papers as it was
about to be deposited in the bank. The money, which belonged to St. Mary’s
Parish, Hwolshe in Jos South Local Government
was handed to Miss Ifeoma Eze, the Church
Secretary to be deposited in the bank before the
mystery occurred. Eze told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on
Wednesday that she had filled the teller at the
main branch of Jos Zenith with the money
wrapped in polythene but saw papers when she
was about to give the cash to the cashier. “The money was intact when I left home for
the bank but on getting to the counter, I opened
the polythene bag only to discover that it has
turned to bundles of papers. “I was so confused and scared; I started
screaming and was oblivious of the attention I
was attracting as bewildered customers tried to
console me,” she told NAN. She said that she was particularly confused
because she was wondering how to relay the
story to the Parish Priest who entrusted the
money to her. She said that she was still “too baffled and
confused” to convey her shock, adding that it
was difficult to imagine what had happened. “It is a story I find difficulty in telling anyone
because not many people can believe it,” she
said. Eze said that she could not fathom what could
have happened but explained that she took the
money home on Sunday and changed the
smaller denominations into bigger ones to ease
the deposit processes in the bank. She said that she did not suspect foul play from
the point of changing the denominations and
explained that the change was obtained from
market women and cashiers of Mr. Biggs, a
popular fast food outfit. “I do not suspect them because they are my
regular customers. Only God knows what could
have happened.” NAN learnt that the incident had sent tongues
wagging among some skeptical members of the
church. Eze, however, expressed some relief that many
of the members were convinced that there was
no foul play on her part. “I thank God that the Church believed what
happened to me and the money and still retained
me as the Church Secretary,” she said. A church member, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, said that it was not difficult to believe
Eze’s story because she was the Church
Secretary and had handled its funds without any
blemish in the past five years. Rev. Father Emmanuel Ray-Ikpe, the Parish
Priest, described the incident as “unfortunate,
surprising and mysterious.“ “I have never heard of such a thing before but
it has happened to us; to our church. There is
nothing we can do about it. My secretary came
back from the bank crying. “Only God knows what exactly happened. Eze
came and told us what happened to the money
and we couldn’t say otherwise. “We have left everything in the hands of God
our creator,” Ray-Ikpe said. The Priest, however, advised Eze to be “extra
careful” when going to the bank to deposit
cash.