December 19, (THEWILL) – Why do supposed men of God take advantage of female parishioners or women not their wives? Last week, a pregnant housewife described to the police how a supposed man of God in Ondo state slept with her right in the temple of God. There have been accusations by women against pastors and general overseers of churches forcing them to have sex with them. Some even end up getting pregnant in the process. The preachers almost always deny the charges. Is it in their DNA or a question of using their positions of authority as GOs to cajole the women to bed? Michael Jimoh reports on a phenomenon that is fast becoming a blemish in the house of God…
There is the story of American Pentecostal televangelist, Jimmy Swaggart, who was defrocked by the Assemblies of God after his involvement in a sex scandal with a prostitute. Caught pants down, Swaggart tearfully declared before his congregation on February 21, 1988 that “I have sinned against you, my Lord, and I would ask that your precious blood…would wash and cleanse every stain until it is in the seas of God’s forgetfulness.”
Three years later, the charismatic preacher was caught yet again soliciting for sex with another female street walker, Rosemary Garcia. This time, there were no lachrymal lamentations. “The Lord told me,” Swaggart said unapologetically, “its flat none of your business.”
More than a dozen Nigerian pastors have had their run in with the opposite sex, that is, women not their legally married spouses. And, like the American televangelist, they seem to be getting away with their ungodly ways.
About a week ago, an unnamed pastor of a white garment church in Akure was arrested by the Police in Ondo State for raping a pregnant woman. The woman in question, one Bukola, had gone to the church for deliverance. Five months heavy, she found herself all alone in the church with the said man of God.
In her words, Bukola came from the hospital with a list which the man of God requested for. As instructed by him, she made photocopies and then placed one on the altar. “He said he was going to do some spiritual work on me before my delivery,” Bukola told the police.
Next thing, the pastor invited her to a room within the church premises, told her to undress and then massaged her private part with anointing oil – olive oil that most people use for cooking. After fondling her swollen belly, the pastor told her the child was in a vertical position and he needed to reposition the baby.
“He asked me to open my legs and dipped his middle finger with oil in my private part,” Bukola said. “He said my baby was in a vertical position instead of horizontal…he would put oil in my private and would help me insert it with his private part so that oil would get into the baby.”
Of course, he did. With his penis! “It was later after he had sex with me that I came to my right senses,” Bukola recalled.
It took Busola Dakolo decades to come to her right senses. In her telling, she was sixteen when celeb preacher, Biodun Fatoyinbo of Commonwealth of Zion Assembly raped her in her family home.
Called ‘Gucci Pastor’ because of his taste for expensive clothes and cars, Fatoyinbo, according to Busola, took advantage of her in her teens. The rape incident happened in her family home. He (Fatoyinbo) went to her family home early one morning when Busola’s mother was not around. Her sib was upstairs sleeping. Before this time, Fatoyinbo was more or less a mentor to the young woman who depended on him for everything from books to counselling and much. After forcefully bedding her, Busola went on, Fatoyinbo went to get a bottle of Krest Bitter Lemon from his car and forced her to drink it, saying: “You should be happy that a man of God did this to you.”
It happened a second time, one week after the first incident and right on the bonnet of his car. As a coup de grace Fatoyinbo now told her the infamous line: “You’ll be fine. This thing is not a new thing. Men of God do this.”
If that was a personal confession, Fatoyinbo couldn’t have been more correct. In 2016, a lady called Stephanie Otobo let it be known that she had an affair resulting in a pregnancy with Pastor Johnson Suleiman of Omega Fire Ministries. In her telling, she and the pastor spent time alone in a hotel where “they had intercourse among other practices.”
The pastor denied the charge.
But Pastor Chukwuma Nkwocha Nkwocha of Tongue and Fire Restoration Ministry could not deny sleeping with, camping and defiling more than a dozen under-aged girls in his church. Following complaints about the man of God’s proclivity for minors, the Police Command in Lagos State surprised him by raiding his church premises on Jacob Taiwo Street, Oshodi. What was the charge against Nkwocha? Having unlawful carnal knowledge of some of the girls.
In the same year, a Nigerian pastor in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev was unmasked for the bimbo eruptions swirling around him. Adelaja was founder and senior pastor of Embassy of God in Kiev. He was also married. Responding to the allegations of adultery, Pastor Adelaja insisted that “it was an attempt by some people to take over the church from him.”
At the time, he was alleged to have slept with no fewer than 20 women in his ministry.
Even the more gentrified and supposedly innocent-looking preacher men have been accused of one sexual misconduct or the other. Nigerians still remember the protracted media war between the Oyakhilomes – Pastor Chris and Anne Oyakhilome – of Believers Love World.
Anne had accused Chris of adultery and unreasonable behavior. Naturally, some church elders intervened and concluded that Anne was being influenced by “bad friends” who were intent on destroying their home.
Bad friends or not, the matter ended in an acrimonious divorce.
Unlike Swaggart who admitted his error, some of his Nigerian counterparts denied any involvement with their accusers. Although Busola intimated that Fatoyinbo came to the family home with some church elders to apologise after she disclosed the rape incidents, “a weakness and an act of the devil,” he said, Fatoyinbo flatly denied the charge, insisting that he was “taking a leave of absence from the pulpit to submit to the concerns of his spiritual mentors.”
Why do men of God take advantage of female worshippers? Or why do women fall for them so easily?
Blind obedience, for sure, and a resolute belief that the man of God can do no wrong and are spiritually fortified to provide solutions to whatever problems they are facing.
Four years ago, another man of God, Bishop Chris Kwakpovwe of Our Daily Manna/ Manna Prayer Mountain Ministry, was accused of making sexual overtures to Rita Ibeni, a female member of his ministry. According to reports at the time in a video that went viral and backed up with slutty telephone conversations between the prelate and the woman, Kwakpovwe declared his love to her and went further saying he wanted to bed her.
Ms. Ibeni turned him down. The bishop denied and some of his church members supported insisting that the voice was not that of their pastor.
Years before and like Swaggart, Pastor Wale Oke, founder and presiding bishop of The Sword of the Spirit Ministries aka Christ Life Church could not deny his alleged dalliance with his secretary. He impregnated her and, according to reports, had several abortions for her. When news of their affair got around, Bishop Oke owned up and confessed to his congregation.
As for 53-year-old Pastor Timothy Ngwu, General Overseer of Vineyard Ministry of the Holy Trinity, he reportedly slept and impregnated 20 members of his church. What was his explanation after he was found out? He was directed by the Holy Spirit to sleep with and impregnate his church members.
About the Author
Michael Jimoh is a Nigerian journalist with many years experience in print media. He is currently a Special Correspondent with THEWILL.
