I got converted to Christianity during one of those campus crusades. I had just turned 19 and was in my second year. I had this firebrand Christian roommate, Ruth, she was the one who dragged me to the crusade where I got converted.
After I became born again, I decided to join the choir for two reasons; first was because I had been told that I have a good voice; secondly because Ruth, was also a choir member.
Now, the church itself was off campus and being a member of the choir, we had to practice; we always did on campus because we were mostly students in the choir. But one day, practice was scheduled for ‘church’ in town. Now, Church is the reception hall of a hotel in town.
We were there rehearsing when Ruth called me that the Pastor wanted to see me. I was wondering. “Shuo, me? Pastor? For what o?”
I kept asking Ruth, as we entered the lift, who told the pastor about me? How did he know me? Have they seen any evil spirit in me? Because the pastor was always laying hands on people and they’d fall and begin to confess. So you understand, I was a bit scared.
But Ruth was like, just be patient.
We went upstairs to the presidential suite. When I entered the room, it was chilled. It had two sitting rooms and was filled with girls in bum shorts and miniskirts and a few guys. They were generally having fun and playing songs by Travis Green, you know. so you don’t get a sense that this is like a club thing but apart from that, it looked like a club thing.
In the inner part, where the bedroom was, I saw the pastor in bed with three girls. One was just lying down reading a magazine, the others were…no they weren’t naked but their clothes were skimpy and the pastor was in shorts and lying down on the bed with the girls all over him like maggots on meat. I swear!
I’m like, this was so wrong. This is a pastor for goodness sake! This man laid hands on me when I gave my life to Christ, he prayed for me, he prophesied to me. I believed him to be a man of God! It can’t be the same man in bed with several girls. There were other girls around in the suite; watching one huge TV. Nobody was shocked, nobody thought it strange, I was the only JJC.
Then someone came in, it was the pastor’s wife, we call her ‘Mummy.’
In my mind, I said, ‘katakata go burst today!’ I was waiting for her to get angry at what was going on and throw all of us out. But no, she just smiled, greeted us and went into another part of the suite, then later she went out.
I was like, no, this is not real! You mean she did not see the half naked girls in bed with her husband? It is ok for him to be half naked in front of church members? I asked myself, ‘Onome, where dem send you go when you go jam this kain thing?’
If I had the sense I have now back then, I should just have run as fast as I could, out of that suite, out of the hotel and never ever go back to that church again.
But I was naïve, I had no sense; I just witnessed something that should never happen and yet, I was looking.
Anyway, the pastor sat up and called me to come forward; ‘Beautiful child of God, what’s your name again?’
Onome, sir
Next thing I knew, he asked me to come to bed to massage his shoulders.
In my mind, I’m like, what? Massage your shoulders? I told him, ‘Sir, I don’t know how to massage.”
He said, ‘Don’t worry, just come closer,’ sis, I just stood there like a statue.
The pastor said they should give me something to drink, that I was too rigid; Ruth went to fridge beside the TV and poured a drink for me; they said it was coke mixed with red bull but it tasted weird, because that is what I normally drink. They also gave me barbecued meat. I took it and sat with two other girls watching TV.
I began to feel tired and I called Ruth to tell her I wanted to leave; but she said I should wait for her. Somehow, I fell asleep on that couch.
Like I said, if I had the sense I have now, what I am about to tell you wouldn’t have happened to me.
I slept off. I woke up because I felt pain in my vjay. It was in out, in out, in out…I wanted to fold my legs and touch my vjay but someone was holding my legs apart and because I wasn’t even fully awake, I thought maybe this was a dream. The room was dark but music was still playing.
I realized I was in bed but my clothes were gone. I was like, come o, am I back to the hostel? But my room has no AC, so why am I this cold? What happened to my clothes, why is my Vjay hurting and my legs, too.
I struggled and I moved, the pastor was on top of me. I thought I was dreaming, it can only be a dream because I know I did not lie in bed with this man.
But it was true; we were alone, the others were gone; the room was empty but for the two of us. I began to cry, I was just crying, then the pastor stopped and he got up and told me the girls will talk to me.
At this time, the room was empty, all the others had gone apart from those of us in bed with pastor. I was so ashamed. This was supposed to be a man of God. This was supposed to be someone who should help us know God better but he was satan!
I can’t even remember how I got out of that place. When I got to the hostel. Ruth said I shouldn’t tell anyone. That after all, I won’t be the only girl pastor likes like that.
All the other girls on campus in the suite that day, they all told me not to say anything! In short, they made it look like I was the one looking for trouble!
I stopped going to church, to class, to anywhere! I kept having nightmares, I became depressed and there was no one to talk to.
I would pick up the phone to tell my mum but would talk about another thing when she got on the line. I was almost running mad!
But one day, weeks after, I went to see the school’s counsellor and told her everything. The woman told me I won’t be the first to come to report the pastor which was why they stopped him from using the campus for church. She asked me if I wanted to report to the police. I said yes. That’s how come, eventually, the pastor was arrested. Only then did other girls come out to say what he did to them.
Since then, it’s been back and forth from police to court… I pray the pastor rots in jail, I won’t forgive him for what he did to me.
(Series written and edited by Peju Akande and based on true stories)
