By Toye Olori
LAGOS, Aug 20 1997 (IPS)

Kayode Williams is a household name here. He became a born-again Christian while serving a 10-year jail term for robbery and since his release in 1976, he has been a full- time evangelist.

Kayode is an inspiration to many people in Nigeria’s commercial capital, but he is also being emulated by a new breed of fraudsters: people who claim to have switched from crime to religion, just as he did two decades ago.

Some of these tricksters have become leading members of the fast growing charismatic churches here. Others ride in long- distance luxury buses giving testimonies of their experiences as robbers who have now repented. They all have one aim: arouse the sympathy of listeners who then donate some money to the “repentant criminal” to help him in his new role as evangelist.

Recently, the private ‘Tell Magazine’ here carried an extensive interview with a 27-year-old who called himself Emmanuel Umunnakwe and claimed to be a former highway robber who had repented and become an evangelist.

According to Tell, Umunnakwe was interviewed inside a luxury bus where he was recounting his escapades to commuters, most of whom extolled God and saluted the young man’s courage in coming out to face the same society he had terrorised. Some likened him to the Biblical Saul who persecuted Christians before God touched him.

“I thank God that he has made it possible for me to go about telling people the importance of one knowing Christ in life,” the self-confessed ex-robber was quoted as saying.

Umunnakwe, who said he started stealing while still in secondary school, even described to ‘Tell Magazine’ the various robberies he had taken part in and where they were committed.

He also claimed in the interview that he had met some of his former victims during his evangelistic trips: “One day I was preaching to a group of people in the bus and the very man who handed to me the key of his Mercedes 500 car during one operation was in the bus … He told me he was very happy to see me in another colour.

“I pleaded with him to forgive me. He said: ‘Emmanuel, what you are doing I cannot even do it.’.”

Umunnakwe also narrated how, while he was preaching in another bus, one of his listeners was so impressed that the man took him home, counselled him and gave him 12,000 naira (about 146 dollars).

Not all observers are inclined to react in that way.

“Such people should be arrested immediately because their cases are different from that of Evangelist Kayode, who served his term before starting his evangelistical work,” says Demian Oshogbe, a civil servant here. “Emmanuel said he never got caught before he decided to leave off robbery. The police must not allow such people in the society.”

Oshogbe feels the self-confessed thief should be charged for robbery.

Businessman Peter Aisoni argues that street preachers like Emmanuel — and there are many in this commercial capital — are mere fraudsters out to make money from innocent citizens, especially religious fanatics.

Religious leaders believe the lack of a proper rehabilitation programme by the state is responsible for the increasing number of fraudsters using the name of God to make a fast buck.

“A good number of ex-convicts are dubious because government has not done anything to help them fit properly into the society,” says Bishop Hezikiah Adeyemo. “After their prison term, some of the convicts see this type of fraud as the quickest way to make money, that is why the number of churches is growing daily and they are manned by dubious and fake evangelists.”

Adeyemo, who is Bishop of the Lagos Mainland Division of the African Church (an authodox church), told IPS: “The government has to do something about this and help rehabilitate ex-convicts, if not, they will continue to dupe people and do havoc to the society.”

“The public, too, should be enlightened of fake evangelists who are looking for ways to fend for themselves,” he said.

Bishop Adeyemo argued that since Emmanuel claimed to be a former armed robber, he should be arrested by the police and prosecuted. “He should be caught for this open confession which could even lead to other arrests,” said the bishop. “Let the police investigate him, it is not enough for him to wake up one day and say he has repented. How are we sure he won’t go back if really he was an armed robber?”

But the police say there is little they can do. “We can’t just arrest anyone because he is said to have confessed to robbery,” said police spokesman Y. E. Arebamen. “We can’t ask him to prove that he was a robber. The police should be the one to prove that he robbed and not him to prove that he robbed.”

Arebamen blamed society for harbouring criminals when it should be reporting them to the police.

“If really, as the boy claimed in the interview, he met some of his victims during his preaching trips and they … did not arrest him or report to the police giving details of his new church and proving that they were actually robbed by him, we cannot do anything about it,” he told IPS.

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