By Vera Chinonso Aliyu and Ada Obeleagu, YeyeNews.com, October 11, 2021
The branch pastor of a Deeper Life Church in Ajagbandi, Lagos State has won a brand-new Kia Picanto car in the ongoing Heineken ‘Drink and Win’ promo. One Heineken marketer explained to YeyeNews.com reporter that “to win in the promo a person is expected to text the number under the crown cock of an Heineken beer bottle to designated phone lines, for a chance to win prizes including a car in a raffle draw.
A senior usher in the church expressed surprise that their pastor would participate in a promo that involved beer consumption. “I don’t believe this is true. Pastor Magu cannot be involved in that kind of promo”, the usher told YeyeNews.com reporter. When the reporter informed him that the pastor’s phone number was announced as the winner of the car, he still insisted in his denial that “somebody else must have used his phone to send the text message.”
However, an elder in the church confirmed that the pastor actually participated and won in the promo but he claimed he wasn’t the one that drank the beer. “This is a scandal. By virtue of his position, he wasn’t expected to participate in such things. Though he claimed it was his wife that drank the beer, but it actually makes no difference. To us the only way he can atone for this is to forfeit the car to the church so that we can send it to the headquarters for use in propagating the gospel.”
When YeyeNews.com contacted Pastor Magu for his reaction, he declined any comment. However, his wife told the reporter that her husband did nothing wrong and she saw no reason why they had to forego the car. “He did not drink the Heineken. I did. Nowhere in the bible does it say we shouldn’t take alcohol. Besides, I didn’t go to a hotel to drink. I bought the Heineken from my neighbor and drank it inside my house. What is wrong in that? We won’t forfeit this car to anybody – it is ours. Since nobody has asked that a child born out of wedlock should be given to the church to cater for, no one should tell us to forfeit our car to the church.”
