Sex scandal rocks Pentecostal church as pastor, lover fall apart

• Aggrieved lover accuses clergyman of having affair with another female church member
• I’ve confessed to my wife, says embattled pastor
• Denies impregnating lover or encouraging her to abort baby

A five-year-old romance between a Lagos-based pastor and his lover has ended in a row with the woman accusing the clergyman of infidelity, brutality, forcible eviction from home and refusal to pay back a loan, KUNLE AKINRINADE of TheNation reports.

An extra-marital affair involving a Lagos-based clergyman, Reverend Charles Ojo, and his lover, Abimbola Alamutu, was relatively sweet until it turned sour recently and crashed like a pack of cards.

Ojo, who resides with his wife and children in the Alagbon area of Ikoyi, Lagos, pastors Fire of Life Church, a Pentecostal church in Agbotikuyo area of Agege, a Lagos suburb, where he met Abimbola through her friends and ignited an affair with her about five years ago.

According to Abimbola, Ojo, who was shuttling between his home in Ikoyi and Agege, had moved into her one-room apartment and would stay with her on service days before returning to the comfort of his family in Ikoyi when there were no activities in the church.

Their affair, however, began to develop, cracks when she caught Ojo making it out with another woman in his office on a day she paid an unexpected visit to the church.

She said: “I used to be a member of the Celestial Church of Christ until he asked me out through some persons and I agreed to date him when he started crying that he needed to have a church of his own and that I could assist him to grow the church. Before we met, he was only praying for people on the phone.

“We have been living as live-in lovers for about five years. I offered to help him out by taking a loan to bail him out of his financial predicament because he was crying that he had no money to establish his own church and was unable to pay for the space he was using for the church as well as the equipment and other items that God used me to get for the church.

“I collected the sum of N1.5 million as loan from a popular microfinance outfit through an affiliate group. He used to pray for people on the phone. Therefore, I got the loans to fund his church project and cater to his children’s education on many occasions, and the people who facilitated the loans for me are still alive to attest to what I am saying.

He was living at Alagbon Close in Ikoyi, Lagos and we established the church in Agbotikuyo area of Agege, a Lagos suburb. He was staying with me in my house whenever he came to church to conduct service.

“I mobilised people to worship at the church and many of the people bought pianos, fans and other equipment for the church.”

Abimbola explained that she became worried after tales about Ojo’s escapades with other women came to her hearing. She, however, said she ignored the rumour until she recently caught the cleric red-handed making out with a food vendor in his office at the church.

She said: “I started hearing that he was dating a food vendor who usually came to his church whenever I was not around.

“On a particular day, I noticed that he had removed most of his clothes from our home and I visited the church to see him around 7 am.

“I was shocked when I opened the door to his office and found him and the female food vendor in a suggestive position on a mat I bought for him besides a mattress I had also bought for him.

“On that particular day, he was wearing a boxer and a singlet while the woman was wearing a night gown and they were in a loved-up mood when I opened the door and found them there. I quickly shut the door and left the office to pack some of his dresses dumped in one corner of the church.

“However, notwithstanding his ungodly affair with the woman, who sells Amala, he beat me up when I confronted him over his amorous affair with the strange woman.

“Before the incident, several women, including a pregnant lady, had at one time or the other complained to me that Pastor Ojo was making passes at them, but I kept quiet.

“When the people around heard about how he beat me up, they said they were not going to worship in his church anymore or assist me with raising funds for him to develop his church.

“When the time came for him to renew his rent on the church, he asked people to plead with me to return to him.”

Abimbola said she subsequently moved out of the apartment she was sharing with the clergyman when he stopped coming there because he could not stand the shame his affair with the food vendor had brought on him, “especially since everyone around was aware of how he brutalised me”.

“When I vacated the apartment, he offered to facilitate two rooms at the building housing his church. He actually got a loan to put tiles in one of the rooms while I have been living in and paying for the other room.

“When he could not pay back the loan, officials of the microfinance bank went to his church and carted away items to take care of the loan.

“However, he has been making attempts to forcibly evict me from my apartment. He recently brought some policemen to arrest me, claiming that I was threatening him. But the policemen left when some pastors around intervened.

“I showed the pastors the amount he was owing me, but he denied ever owing me and even insisted that I must leave the room I was staying in for peace to reign.

“On Sunday, March 21, he sent a letter purportedly written by a lawyer through a boy asking me to vacate the room I was staying in within one week. I took a cursory look at the letter and discovered that it was his handwriting.

“He is neither the landlord nor the one paying for my rent, yet, he wants to evict me from the apartment, using his lawyer.

“He wanted to eject me from the room I was paying rent, yet the owner of the building was not the one that initiated the letter.

“At the moment, he is owing me the sum of N357,000, apart from the amount he is owing my brother who works in a new generation bank and has refused to pay to date.”

Abimbola added: “All I want from Pastor Ojo is for him to refund me the sum of N300,000 he borrowed from me and N57,000 belonging to my son, totalling N357,000.

“He also collected the sum of N200,000 from a microfinance bank, and when he could not pay back the money, officials of the bank stormed the church and removed valuables.

“The food vendor also brought people to remove some items she bought for the church, including a plasma television, generator and his phone, among others, claiming that Pastor Ojo was owing her after making love to her several items and dumping her.”

Responding via the telephone, 58-year-old Ojo described Abimbola’s allegations as a tissue of lies she weaved in order for her to sustain her occupation of the apartment she stays within his church premises.

He also said he did not impregnate her let alone asking her to abort any pregnancy for him.

“Apart from that, I discovered that my relationship with her was no longer comfortable or favourable to me anymore, upon several warnings to make her change into a better woman.

“There were several anti-church activities I discovered she was involved in, which would take much time for me to explain.

“As I speak with you, she has taken the matter to a (Yoruba) programme on MITV called Oju Aye Ree. So she has taken the matter too far.

“She’s never a tenant in the apartment where she is staying. The apartment is within my church premises and we are using it for the church. However, when she had an accommodation problem, the church came to her assistance and she moved into the place pending the time she would get herself a new accommodation.

“Thereafter, other problems occurred between me and the lady and between her and the church.

“The apartment does not belong to her, and if she insists, tell her to give you the receipt of her rent.

“I initially assisted her in paying for the rent of the apartment where she was staying when we started dating. However, she is not paying a dime to occupy her present apartment.

“I am not owing her. Like I told you, she is my girlfriend. And as you know, things can happen between a man and his girlfriend, including monetary tractions.

“There was a time she helped me with some money for some facilities when I was about to start my church, and we paid the money back on a weekly basis for months, and my wife can testify to this.

“There was a time she collected a loan for me and it was paid back. There was another loan she collected on my behalf and that one too was paid in N33,000 every month and liquidated. The loan as well and the records are there to prove it.

“I know who she is. She is only buying time so that she would not move out of the apartment. She is looking for an excuse not to vacate the apartment.

“She is trying not to leave the room and that’s why she is making the allegations. She was given a quit notice alongside other tenants where she was living, and that was why the church decided to give her a temporary accommodation.

“She loves money and can do anything to get money. She is stubborn and respects nobody. She is highly temperamental and flirts with all kinds of men.

“I have tried my best to make her a better woman to no avail. It is only recently that she started selling biscuits at the front of her apartment.

“She has chased away many members of the church and that is why I will do my best to ensure she leaves the church premises by vacating the apartment the church gave her temporarily.

“I have told her people that I am no more interested in associating with her, and it was from that moment she started this blackmail against me.

“She neither got pregnant for me nor carried out any abortion for me. I have lost financial members in the church because of her.

“She never caught me with any amala vendor. I have a wife and children, and she is only lying against me to garner sympathy.

“People have intervened more than 15 times and she would plead for forgiveness and go ahead to do worse things thereafter.

“I am not owing any of her brothers and she is only lying in order not to move out of the temporary apartment given to her at the church premises.

“I want her out of the apartment because so long as she still lives there, she would continue to do worse things.”

He added: “My wife did not know that I was dating Abimbola, but I have since confessed to her and she was slightly annoyed. She later took it with calmness in order not to aggravate the matter because of our future.

“She said that she would look for a common ground to resolve the issue because she had prophesied about this matter long before it happened.

“Abimbola took a loan running into N200,000 for herself and two other persons. When she could not pay back, the microfinance bank pressured me to pay back the facility because I stood surety, and as I speak, she has refused to disclose the identity of the third person.

“She brought officials to the church while I was away and carted several properties of the church away, including the pew, set drums and fans.

“When I visited the office of the bank, I was told that Abimbola was the one that urged them to remove the church items and even got a bus that moved them out of the premises.

“I know that if I had not had any affair with her, she would not have done the things she did. But I licked my wounds quietly because of the dimension the matter has taken.

“Ironically, yesterday, her brother was still pleading with me on the phone not to evict her because she has no place to live or carry out her petty trade.”