Prayer Band Pastor “Chops” …US$ 20,000, Jewelries For US Visa

Six Liberian women who have allegedly fallen prey to a prayer band pastor’s scheme have accused him of extorting money and other valuables worth thousands of United States in the name of finding them solutions in their quest to leave Liberia for greener pastures.
Doris Wilson Debra, 39; Theresa Mason, 30; Lucia Gabriel, 27; Loretta Brown, 24; Esther Peters, 21 and Famata Hansford, 19 explained how the Pastor of the God’s Grace Prayer Sanctuary (GGPS), in Gbengbah Town, along the RIA Road, Wremongar Garyezon Davis, demanded from them over US$20,000 for solutions to their quests.
In their testimonies to this paper recently, the young women said they were duped in their quest to travel to the United States of America which according to themselves were due to several stumbling blocks they had encountered that led them to Wremongar’s prayer band.
“After things were not working for us and we could not travel after making frantic efforts to go to Benin via Nigeria where we had gone seeking an oracle, one of our friends, Theresa Mason then misplaced her travel documents and those who should have carried us left therefore we could not go even though we later found the missing documents,” they narrated.
“We have traveled to Guinea, Ghana and Nigeria in search of this one opportunity to travel to the United States and sought help from native doctors (traditional healers) but things still did not materialize, until we decided to return to Liberia upon the request of another friend who called us from the United States of America encouraging us to seek the help of a powerful man of God back home,” they stated.
“We moved to the God’s Grace Prayer Sanctuary early this year upon the request of the pastor and slept on the floor, convinced that with the pastor’s assurance; we would have travelled in two weeks. Initially, we had a doubt but the pastor kept promising us that we were going to travel in two weeks not until after several months of fasting, eating raw cassava and fruits, we were told by an assistant to the pastor that our problems were bigger and that it needed more time of fasting and praying,” the women stated.

“He initially demanded US$5.000 in cash and came back with another request for additional US$10,000 along with some valuables worth also over US$10,000 and because we did not have that amount at the time, we pleaded with him to give some of our jewelries worth the value of his demands,” they narrated.
“Since we arrived at the prayer band, we met the pastor just once and he told us that he was going to consult his God on a mountain in Todee and advised that we should remain in the edifice of the prayer band while he goes to pray,” they stated.
“One of our friends got ill and when he heard about her sickness, he immediately came and asked that we leave stating that our problems are difficult,” the ladies explained; stating that the pastor said he sees people close to them who were stopping them from traveling therefore told them to leave the church and return home while he also returns to the mountain to continue his prayers.
They said the pastor further told them that their problems were complicated because he sees some of them, their mothers, some of their husbands and relatives preventing them from traveling.
When Pastor Davis was contacted at his prayer band, he did not deny nor confirm the allegations levied against him by the ladies but said God works in mysterious ways and maintained that the problems of the ladies were supported by people close to them and that they needed to have more time for prayers and fasting as well as to be in the presence of the Lord continuously.
“These ladies are threatened by people close to them; they are to come closer to God or else they will not travel and something bad will happen to them because the money they paid to me was tithes and offerings. I did not ask them to pay me a dime for prayers,” he told this paper.