Winners Chapel in Ibadan, Oyo State, has distanced itself from the trending video of a man testifying on its altar that he spent 10 years in prison on trumped-up charges.

The video, published on @amoscapable’s TikTok handle, went viral on X (formerly Twitter) showing a man who identified himself as Martins Eze JNR testifying in the church as another man held a microphone for him.

CLAIM: The police arrested Martins Eze in 2013 and kept him in prison for 10 years.

Martins says in the video that he was done watching a football match in 2013 when policemen arrested him, charged him with armed robbery and kept him in prison for 10 years, only for a concerned group to take interest in his case and discover he was detained under a wrong name.

He says he lost his mother and wife but managed to survive the encounter and secure his release in 2023.

Reacting to the trending video, the church has now come out to accuse Eze of fabricating his story and doing same in various churches.

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Via its official Instagram handle, @winners_chapel_ologuneru, the church reposted the video late on Wednesday night and had the words ‘Disclaimer’ and ‘False Testimony’ branded on it.

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The church also added a statement saying it had examined evidence and found that Eze had given an inaccurate and untrue account.

“Attention Church Community. Regarding A Recent Video: Testimony Of A Man Being Just Released From Prison,” the church’s statement read.

“Upon careful examination, has been found to be inaccurate and untrue.

“He has been doing this in different churches with different testimonies. Thank you for your understanding and your continued commitment to the truth. We are a strong and supportive community, and together, we can navigate challenges like these with grace and wisdom.”

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VERIFICATION: FIJ went further to probe how the church came to its conclusion. We called the church, and they gave us more information.

Responding to FIJ’s inquiry, a church representative said, “When the video went viral, we got several calls from several people telling us of how the same man had been to their church to narrate entirely different stories to them as testimonies.

“He goes to different churches to say something happened to him and God saved him. Then, after services, he would hang around for sympathetic church members to make transfers to him or give him cash or other forms of help.

“He was never in prison. We found out that the time he said he spent in prison was spent going to other churches in Ibadan and other places. There are other videos of him doing same too.”

The church representative provided FIJ with video evidence showing Martins testifying on the altar of another parish on a date he was supposed to be in prison as he had claimed in his most recent testimony.

VERDICT: The claim that Martins spent 10 years in prison is false.