Catholics in Nigeria Urged to Improve on Communication to Quickly Fish Out People “masquerading” as Church Agents

“There are fake people all over the place because of poverty and many other challenges we have. That is why we must up our game to be at par with those who are trying to ruin the image of the Church,” the President of the Pan African Episcopal Committee for Social Communications (CEPACS), an entity of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM), told ACI Africa. 

To curb the trend, Bishop Badejo suggests that authorities in Nigeria ensure that the law against impersonation is designed to work.

“Unfortunately, laws are not made to work in most of our societies,” Bishop Badejo said, adding that the Church must also help herself by training her agents and giving them the identification they need.

According to the Local Ordinary of Oyo Diocese, the Church must also improve its network of information.

“People masquerade as Catholic Priests in one Parish and, when they are discovered, they move to the next Parish where they continue to exploit the people,” he said, and added, “If we are able to improve our network of communication, and share information a bit more, the issue of people masquerading as something they are not could diminish.”

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Recently, an alarm was raised about two men who went about, clad as Catholic Priests. It later emerged that they belonged to a certain ‘Old Catholic Apostolic Church’. 

In another incident, the Local Ordinary of Nigeria’s Catholic Diocese of Lokoja ordained four men, who presented themselves as Seminarians before it later emerged that they were fraudsters. 

In yet another reported incident, a certain Mother Mario allegedly went about obtaining money from families of young girls who she enrolled in her unauthorized “religious congregation”.

Agnes Aineah is a Kenyan journalist with a background in digital and newspaper reporting. She holds a Master of Arts in Digital Journalism from the Aga Khan University, Graduate School of Media and Communications and a Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communications from Kenya's Moi University. Agnes currently serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.