The ongoing legal and media battle surrounding Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries’ persecution claims has taken a dramatic turn, as critics accuse a former member, Funke Ashekun, of fabricating a narrative to secure a new life abroad. For more than five years, Funke Ashekun presented herself online as a victim of severe religious persecution.
Now, emerging details suggest these elaborate stories were part of a coordinated strategy to secure an asylum application in the United States for her family of six. The strategy has backfired in public, however, following a major US Appeal Court judgment linked to a bitter dispute involving Dr D.K. Olukoya’s defamation allegations.
On her different social media platforms, she has painted various emotional narratives of fear, oppression and intimidation. She said she suffered through these together with her family when she was in Nigeria and as a member of the MFM Church. For more than five years, Funke dedicated her page to constant accusations and inflammatory statements about her former General Overseer, Dr DK Olukoya, with the intention to provoke outrage.
However, independent observers and legal analysts state that the digital campaign lacked substantive backing. Sadly, all these stories were cooked up to secure asylum in the United States, having presented herself as one fleeing danger because of religious persecution. Critics who questioned the credibility of her story said she hasn’t been able to provide any credible evidence to support the various dramatic claims she has made for years. Rather, the US Appeal Court ordered her to pay $300,000 for the lawsuit filed against her for continuous defamation and online propaganda, which, unfortunately, she has been making in her bid to build an asylum narrative rather than presenting the objective truth.
The US Appeal Court Judgment and the Asylum Narrative
The financial penalty has cast a long shadow over her digital ministry and podcasting activities. It is now beginning to dawn on so many who have been following her carefully crafted narratives on her podcast for years that one of the many reasons she has remained relentless in her efforts to back out from her continuous claims of persecution is because of the asylum she has been seeking from the US government. To maintain the validity of her immigration claims, she allegedly had to keep the narrative alive at all costs.
According to emerging reports, the efforts to sustain this campaign extended to the incentivisation of other former congregants. Funke Ashekun, to date, continues to recruit and pay different ex-members of the MFM church to tell lies against Dr Olukoya, as obtained in an audio recording which recently leaked online and is connected to her.
Allegations of Betrayal in the Church
The sudden hostility has left the leadership and the wider congregation of the ministry deeply shocked. Members of MFM continue to wonder how one who Dr Olukoya financed her wedding with, provided free accommodation for several years with her family, gave two cars (she and her husband), placed children on scholarship, got a privileged salary and also carted away from the church over N3million would suddenly become filled with hatred and vendetta while many, to date, keep wondering why Funke never presented evidence of physical threats, no legal complaint, no verifiable documents beyond social media posts and emotional commentary.
The case of Funke’s shocking betrayal in biting the fingers that once fed her has become one of the biggest stories in the history of Christendom. Observers note that the outcome of her pending Funke Ashekun asylum process remains highly uncertain, given the recent US Appeal Court judgment.
As the community processes these revelations, the contrast between the public claims of Mountain of Fire and Miracles persecution and the financial reality of the court order continues to spark intense debate online.
