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.”
Jean told SaharaReporters that John Asanga acted as the intermediary, taking instructions from them and passing them on to the engineers, despite his lack of IT expertise.
“As a result of these ongoing issues, I demanded access to the backend of our websites, but John Asanga repeatedly refused. Furthermore, for every minor correction needed on the websites, we were required to pay someone John Asanga brought in, as he himself lacked any technical knowledge,” he said.
Jean told SaharaReporters that he is a medical physicist with a long career in the healthcare sector, committed to restructuring medical practices in Africa.
As part of this mission, they organised a conference in Abuja in collaboration with their NGO to present their work and its potential benefits for Africa.
“I am a medical physicist with a long career in the healthcare sector, committed to restructuring medical practices in Africa. As part of this mission, we organised a conference in Abuja, in collaboration with our NGO, to present our work and its potential benefits for Africa.
“Despite the ongoing issues with John Asanga, we asked him to contact healthcare professionals and handle the event logistics. He persuaded us that managing these tasks would be easier for him, saving us from dealing with staff movements. He provided a highly inflated quotation for the event, which we requested to revise, offering N4.5 million in advance.
“He assured us that the two websites and portals would be ready by the time we arrived in Abuja.
“Upon our arrival, we discovered there was no conference venue, and no arrangements had been made. John Asanga claimed that because we hadn’t paid the remaining balance, he hadn’t confirmed the reservation,” Jean stated.
He continued, “At this point, his sister, Nsikan, intervened to avoid further family conflict and contacted her husband, Jonnah, who, through his connections with the Ministry of Health, secured the conference room at the Abuja General Hospital.
“We are extremely grateful to the Minister of Health for his quick intervention and support. The Minister appreciated our initiative.”
He said that, contrary to John Asanga’s claims, they did not flee Nigeria as suggested.
He said, “In fact, we invited him to our accommodation in Abuja and requested that he bring the 14 technicians and provide us with access to the websites and portals.
“However, John Asanga claimed that the technicians had decided to completely halt the work, citing the unpaid balance. He also claimed to have hired a new, more professional team to continue the work.
“We questioned why he hadn’t used the funds for the new team to complete the original work, but John, cornered by our questions, disappeared after claiming he needed to make a phone call.”
Jean explained that this led to John Asanga’s arrest by the Civil Defence and his subsequent incarceration.
“The case is still ongoing. While in Abuja, we also contacted a company in Lagos to recover our portal work, which they successfully completed in just three months. They managed to regain access to our websites, which had been misappropriated by John Asanga,” he said.
He added that the information John Asanga provided is misleading and misrepresents the facts.
“During the recovery process, the contracted company discovered that John Asanga had linked his PayPal account to the donation page, diverting funds directly to himself. They also reported that he had connected other websites to the site’s subdomain and was collecting money from them,” Jean said.
Jean told SaharaReporters that their activities are now running smoothly and without any risks.
“I felt it was necessary to provide a full and accurate account to set the record straight,” Jean said.
When SaharaReporters contacted John Asanga and asked why he misled people with his claims, he said: “When I wrote those things and sent them to you, I only wrote about what happened. That they actually took 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.
