Starting on Monday, the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) begins a seven-part series, ‘Prophets of Their Pockets’ — an undercover investigation on the travails of miracle seekers at the hands of Christian and Islamic operators of Nigeria’s booming fake prophecy industry.

‘Prophets of their Pockets’ is the result of eight months of undercover reporting, filming and writing by ‘Fisayo Soyombo, FIJ’s Founder/Editor-in-Chief. It is a hard-won, physically draining and spiritually taxing exploration of public desperation for quick, spiritual fixes to problems, and their cash-for-miracles manipulation by clergies of Nigeria’s two most popular religions.

In one church, the reporter was made to undergo ‘sacrifices’ with items such as candles, coconut, palm fronds and eggs in exchange for healing. He was also made to bathe with some materials in addition to buying food and drinks for 100 prophets and prophetesses.

In another church, the sought miracle cost him some cash, some unnecesary purchases, a spiritual bath and days of ‘prayers’. In this particular church, one prophet even backstabbed the other in a bid to have the miracle seeker’s funds all to himself.

At a very popular mosque in Lagos, the cleric demanded and received N125,000 in cash as payment for his service and the purchase of items such as white cloth, palm oil, salt, sugar and ram. The journalist was told to bathe in a river and mutter some incantations. During the second meeting at the same mosque, the Islamic cleric would demand another N155,000 — for the purchase of pigeons, ducks, honey, sugarcane, groundut, beans and plantain. The ram was eventually killed and its blood supposedly sacrificed, but the journalist was prevented from tasting the meat.

One other Lagos mosque demanded money after money for special herbs, before finally taking the miracle seeker to Bulala Beach in Ajah, Lagos, for prayers.

There was an Islamic healing centre where the journalist was made to pay tens of thousands for sundry spiritual soaps, creams and ‘evil spirit’ drinks, before being made to pay for bottles of ‘prayer water’ that seemed to contain no more than water in its raw, colourless, tasteless form.

Finally, one Imam took the journalist to a river where a chicken was to be slaughtered and its blood spilled in sacrifice. On arrival at the river, the cleric handed him a nylon of foul-smelling liquid and told him to gulp it. When the journalist declined to, the cleric refused to kick-start the sacrifice. Left with no option, the journalist drank it.

While ‘Prophets of their Pockets’ is the most direct handiwork of ‘Fisayo Soyombo, the support and talents of a few people in and around the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) have been instrumental in bringing this work to life. J. O. and O. O. — how they asked to be named for security reasons — offered their video editing and production skills. Two members of the reporter’s personal backroom staff helped fix and sometimes monitor the appointments; they also asked to remain anonymous for security reasons. The articles were edited by Temitayo Olofinlua.

‘Prophets of their Pockets’ kicks off on Monday October 24, one series going live every other day.