By At0yebi Nike
The Charity Commission of the United Kingdom has frozen the assets of Mountain of Fire and Miracles (MFM) Ministries International, founded by Nigerian pastor Daniel Olukoya, following serious concerns about transparency and financial management.
In a statement released on Monday, the commission said it had launched an official inquiry after detecting possible misuse of charitable funds within the organisation’s UK branches.
Investigators found that MFM’s trustees failed to maintain proper supervision or control over more than 100 bank accounts operated independently by local branches.
“Many of the charity’s financial issues stemmed from its complex structure, which expanded from a few branches to over 90 nationwide without adequate governance improvements,” the report stated.
The commission said local branches acted autonomously opening bank accounts, managing income, and handling funds without central oversight or timely reporting. This, it added, created significant risks to charitable assets and led to inaccurate financial records.
“Branches were making major financial decisions, including property purchases and lease agreements, without trustee authorisation,” the report noted, adding that these lapses resulted in financial losses within the charity’s operations.
Following the findings, the regulator moved to freeze MFM’s assets to prevent further misuse of funds.
Efforts to obtain comments from Dan Aibangbe, spokesperson for MFM, were unsuccessful at the time of reporting.
This is not the first time MFM’s UK operations have come under scrutiny. In 2019, the Charity Commission appointed an interim manager to oversee the ministry after repeated financial irregularities and late report submissions. A similar intervention had also been made in the case of Christ Embassy, led by Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, over comparable governance concerns.
