UK-Based Cameroonian Pastor Accuses Nigerian Web Designer Of Faking Team Of Engineers In N40Million Scam, Linking PayPal Account To Donation Page
Asanga’s sister, Blessing, previously accused Jean of using operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to arrest and detain Asanga before fleeing the country.
Anew piece of evidence has emerged in an alleged fraud case involving John Asanga, a self-proclaimed web designer, who is accused of defrauding Jean-Michel Tchamba, a Cameroonian pastor residing in the United Kingdom.
Asanga’s sister, Blessing, previously accused Jean of using operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to arrest and detain Asanga before fleeing the country.
However, Pastor Jean claims that Asanga collected nearly N40 million from him over the course of two years, promising to build a website, but failed to deliver it.
The dispute reportedly intensified when Jean demanded access to the website’s backend, which Asanga persistently refused to provide.
Jean told SaharaReporters that during the recovery process, the contracted company discovered that Asanga had linked his PayPal account to the donation page, diverting funds directly to himself.
He said the company also reported that Asanga had connected other websites to the site’s subdomain and was collecting money from them.
A statement of account obtained by SaharaReporters shows multiple transactions where Pastor Jean sent millions of naira to Asanga, contradicting his counter-allegation that Jean was involved in fraudulent activities.
Despite the ongoing dispute over the website, Jean claims he entrusted Asanga with additional responsibilities, including coordinating healthcare professionals and handling logistics for an event in Abuja.
Asanga allegedly convinced them that he could efficiently manage the arrangements, thereby reducing logistical burdens.
However, he allegedly submitted an inflated quotation, despite receiving a ₦4.5 million advance, neither completed the websites nor successfully organised the event.
Jean told SaharaReporters that Asanga wanted to destroy his reputation because he knew that he was not from Nigeria.
He also stated that the information Asanga presented did not reflect the reality of the situation.
“Firstly, John Asanga is not an IT professional. Our initial contact with Asange was through his sister, who worked as a volunteer in digital marketing for our church,” Jean explained.
He further stated that when they were seeking IT programmers for their medical portal, Asanga led them to believe he had connections with 14 engineers who had worked on Nigeria’s electoral system.
Jean said, “We arranged a Zoom meeting with Microsoft UK to provide him with instructions and a prototype for our system. However, it became evident that John Asanga had misrepresented the situation. There were only two people involved—himself and Mr. Devon—not the 14 engineers he had promised.
“We only discovered the true nature of these claims when we arrived in Abuja for our medical conference. Despite several payments made to John Asanga, we requested direct contact with these 14 engineers, but he consistently delayed our request, claiming the engineers were too busy with their tasks to be disturbed. This raised suspicions.”
me to Civil Defence. You see, that’s the thing. I can even send you the details of the money he sent to me.
“I can forward my account details to you. Every penny that man sent to me was meant for different jobs. I can tell you all the jobs I did with it. You see, that was one of the things he said at the Civil Defence office. It was later that he got someone involved. It was at that Civil Defence office that I wrote about what he did.
“That was when he came back and said that I linked my PayPal. But I’m in Nigeria—I don’t have a PayPal account. So let him send you a screenshot of my supposed PayPal account. If he has it, he should send it to you.”
Asanga denied the allegations made against him by Jean.
“All the money he claimed he sent to me—I will send you proof of all the jobs he asked me to do with it. I thought I forwarded them to you earlier. Maybe you didn’t see them. I later discovered that the messages disappeared.
“If he says I added my PayPal account to anything, let him provide evidence. If he also claims that I added other websites to the supplement, let him send proof. He has all those records.
“If he can prove it, I’ll plead guilty. If he sends all the evidence, I’ll accept responsibility. But do you know that as of yesterday, he was sending people I know to beg me to take down these things so we could talk? I told them I wasn’t the one who posted it.”
When asked what the money sent to him was meant for, John Asanga said, “All the money he sent was intended for graphics, videos, and running church services for him here in Nigeria twice a week.
“The money was meant for those things—the graphics, children’s websites, and the portal we were building.”
Regarding the subdomains allegedly linked to the website, he said: “There’s no subdomain. I don’t even have access to it. I only did the job I was assigned. I didn’t do anything else on his subdomain. If he has evidence, he should please forward it to you.”
When asked why he did not release the backend access to Jean, he said: “You know, I told you that it was because he hadn’t paid my balance, I didn’t want to give it to him.
“Why would I hand it over when he was owing me? He had not paid the full amount for the job. That’s why he got me arrested—he wanted to take the job from me without paying.
“My wedding was coming up on that particular day, so that was why.”
When asked how much money he was owed and whether it was true that he collected N40 million from Jean, he said: “I didn’t collect N40 million. All the money I collected from him should be around N20 million.
“Everything, including the conference, is around N21 million. It shouldn’t be more than that. It’s not even up to N25 million.”
He denied that it took him up to two years to build the website.
“It’s less than a year,” he said.
