I won’t defend him!
I will say it as it is and I don’t care what anyone says.
My husband is responsible for the pregnancies of those teenage girls; he can deny it all he likes but he is responsible for them; these are the only things he will ever be found to be responsible for- sleeping with small girls and women who he is not married to, all in the name of counsel and special prayers!
I moved out of my matrimonial home several months ago because I couldn’t cope with the hypocrisy anymore.
My husband founded a church in our area, in Agiliti; he said he got a call from God years ago but didn’t have money to start the church. I wasn’t there when he claimed God called him; he came back from work one day…he used to work in a factory…and ministry began. There was no ceremony to it, no long time in prayers, no fasting period, no searching the scriptures for days. It was looking for how to start a church!
Since I am not the one who got the “call,” I supported him on this “call” as a woman should support her husband.
He stopped work, we had bought a half plot years before; so we built a decking and we started the church in our compound; we got a tent, plastic chairs and microphone.
Small, small, the church began to grow; people began to come after a few months; mostly women and their young children.
When we started with regular evangelism to people in the area, more people began to come because churches were far from that area and the roads were horrible then, small rain and everywhere was flooded.
So that place was far inside.
But things began to change with one woman. This woman, who everyone thought was pregnant, she was heavy for more than two years…my husband prayed for her and she was delivered from the tumor that was in her stomach. It wasn’t a baby, it was a tumor but people believed she was pregnant but that witches turned the baby to stone…a tumor.
God did it through my husband…though the woman later died but the fact that the tumor had done so much damage to her. I knew it was a tumor but people said it was a baby that was tuned to stone.
Any way, it was after that incident that the church grew; many people knew the woman, when they heard her give her testimony in our church…people came, people started calling my husband “man of God,” because many people had tried to help the woman but they couldn’t. After she drank the holy water he prepared, she was delivered of it…
Maybe God was with my husband that time because even I can’t explain what happened that period. We went to the woman’s house when her husband called my husband to come and see miracle…anyway, from then on, our church began to grow because people wanted to see the pastor that did it for the woman.
When a church grows, you tell people to pay their tithes and give offerings and come for special prayers, when their prayers are answered, they give yanfu yanfu to the pastor!
So people began to give and small, small, we moved from our compound to a bigger plot not too far from us; we didn’t buy it, it was one of those plots people buy but they abandon. We cemented the compound and brought more plastic seats, bigger tent…after some time, some people donated money for speakers, podium…church began to grow so much so that my husband was even given a small car!
Because the church was growing fast, we began to have ushers…which was mainly my job at that time; we began to have people who sing for church…that’s when our trouble started.
All these young, young women who will not stay in one place, began to come to church to ‘see’ pastor for one thing or another. Anyway, as the church grew my husband and I grew apart. I supported his call but when I saw he was doing a lot of things that was so wrong, I warned him.
He would go for so called “evangelism” and come back smelling like…like, you know like he had sex…you know that smell of sex?
Yes, like he has rubbed body with someone and since I’m not aware of him being homosexual, I knew it must be a woman. As a woman, you will know these things, even if it’s been going on for a long time, after sometime, you will notice it. He comes home smelling funny.
I also noticed that about two or three of the girls that sing in our choir were always hanging around him. They are always calling him at odd hours.
The second thing I also noticed is that many times, he would just stand on the pulpit and lie!
You know, he would say God told him this and this when I know it was something else that happened. You know? He would say for instance he was telling the church one day that God spoke to him live when he was in the bathroom to become a pastor!
That’s a big lie.
When I confronted him at home, he told me he had to make up stories so his congregation will have faith in God! He defrauded one man at one time for his money claiming he would use it to pray for him. He didn’t pray or fast as he promised the man!
So now, the story I heard is that two young girls are pregnant for him and he has denied it at the police station.
One of the girls sings in the choir; the one I said I see often hanging around my husband and calling him at night!
Why won’t she be pregnant?
I warned the girl’s mother to tell her daughter to stop calling pastor at night, instead, she told me I was a thorn in Pastor’s flesh, that I do not want him to be used by God. I was very angry with the woman that day!
After that time, I noticed some of the choir members would see me and not greet me, even when I would be standing next to pastor, they would greet him and not greet me. When I pointed it out to him, he said it’s because I wasn’t behaving like a pastor’s wife, that I was always jealous of the women who came to him!
That’s the kind of thing I saw when I was still living with him.
So me and the women in church were struggling for him…I decided to leave one day.
I carried my load and left him and no; I don’t have any child; we haven’t been able to have children but he can impregnate young girls outside marriage!
I don’t believe he is called by God, no one truly called by God will be sleeping with his church members; especially the young ones.
We were always quarrelling over this matter because it was getting too much. He accused me of being the devil that wants to stop his mission for God.
What mission? Sleeping with female members?
Look, I got tired and left; after all, we have no kids together.
You know, after I left, not one single member of the church came looking for me or called me to hear my side of the story, to ask why I left the pastor…for six months, no one called and no one came even though I still lived within the area.
Then katakata burst, I heard he impregnated two small girls; one I was telling you about and another young lady in that church; they say she is 18 or 19 years old, I am not even sure!
Ha, I don’t need to go there to talk to anyone, pastor is responsible for the pregnancies, you can’t be doing kurukere and not have consequences. Yes, let the girl’s mother report him to the police but the woman herself is irresponsible, before I left my husband’s house, I warned her about her daughter but she spat in my face, now, she should help her daughter carry her pregnancy, useless people who deserve the useless pastor they have!
(Series written and edited by Peju Akande and based on true stories)