By Sunmola Olowookere
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The prophetic office is no longer what it used to be because fake prophets have infiltrated the ministry. Many herbalists that had been suffering from low patronage as christianity spreads have thrown off their traditional agbada for cassocks and exchanged their Opele with the holy bible in a bid to hoodwink vulnerable christians and make a living.
“Many churches and prophets you see are not of God but of their father, the devil and they are out to devour unsuspecting believers. They are all over the place and by their seeds, you shall know them. Just as the different scandals that we see happening in the christendom of recent”.
These were the words of Prophet Josiah Adeniyi, a popular Akure clergy while speaking with The Hope on the sexual recklessness being observed among Nigerian prophets in recent times.
Recall a news item recently published in one of editions titled “Prophet hypnotizes, impregnates landlord’s wife”.
Oluwaseun Akinnubi whose church, Christ the Helper Foundation Ministry is based in Ore, headquarters of Odigbo Local Government Area of Ondo State had allegedly impregnated his landlord’s wife simply identified as mama Precious.
According to reports, the landlord identified as Tubosun and his wife accommodated Akinnubi, when he had no shelter. But after a while, the prophet allegedly hypnotized the man and impregnated his wife, a mother of four under her husband’s roof.
He was later arrested by men of the Ondo State Police Command in Ore, after the landlord’s brother lodged a complaint at the police station.
According to a source close to the landlord’s family, the police apprehended the prophet during the christening of the child the landlord’s wife had for the prophet.
“After impregnating the woman, the prophet rented another apartment and moved the woman out of her husband’s house. To the dismay of neighbours, after mama Precious gave birth, they noticed her husband was going to the prophet’s new place to wash clothes for his estranged wife and the new baby.
“His younger brother and a neighbour tried to make the landlord come to his senses, but he was unperturbed. Rather, he kept going to the place to wash his wife’s and the baby’s clothes. He also use to clean the house.
“At that point, we knew the prophet had already hypnotized Tubosun, because his actions were odd. We believe he is no longer in his right frame of mind,”he disclosed.
Also, a neighbour who craved anonymity while speaking with our correspondent, described the prophet’s sudden action as ‘diabolical,’ saying Tubosun has not been normal since he accommodated his rival.
“Some months after he moved in with the couple, His church members increased greatly. We were amazed as the man has been collecting a bag of rice each from his members who came for deliverance.
“Later, I discovered the prophet was having an affair with Tubosun’s wife, a mother of four. I personally drew his attention to it. But to my surprise, he didn’t believe me. He later confronted Akinnubi. But the prophet boasted that he has been joined together with the woman from heaven.
“After a while, Akinnubi rented another apartment for the woman, while he held church service everyday at Tubosun’s residence in the morning and night,” he narrated. However, the man was said to be at the police custody.
In a related development, a Senior Pastor of Foursquare Gospel Church, off Ijoka road in Akure, Pastor Samuel Ajayi, was suspended by the leadership of the Church following his sex escapades with a married female church member which went viral few weeks ago in a video recorded by the woman during the act.
The secret affair between Pastor Ajayi and the woman was blown open after her son stumbled on the sex video of his mother and the randy pastor on his mother’s phone. Angered , he forwarded the sex video to his father who works in Lagos, but comes home on monthly basis or when the need arises.
Worried by the reality that his wife was not only cheating on him, but having sexual affair with a senior pastor in her church which she brazenly recorded, the man left Lagos for Akure to address the situation. He reported the matter at the Police Station after which the randy pastor was arrested.
He was released after interrogation as policemen handling the case said that the matter was domestic in nature and should be settled by both families. While the pastor remains suspended, his lover has bolted from her matrimonial home.
In light of the scandals, Prophet Adeniyi, stressed that In the 1960s, 1970s and part of the early 1980s, Nigerians didn’t hear much about sex scandals, financial misappropriations and other corrupt practices in the church.
“But as soon as every Tom, Dick and Harry turned themselves to pastors and general overseers, a lot of things have started to happen. Children and women have been the major victims,” he lamented.
Also reacting to the ugly development, the founder of an interdenominational outreach, International Church Growth Ministries, Dr. Bola Akin-John has called for the use of thorough enlightenment and sustainable campaigns to tackle all forms of sexual scandals, especially in the church.
He said there was the need for everyone in the church to be equipped with sufficient knowledge to arrest the ugly trend so that the society would be better for it.
He lamented that many religious teachers, whom the people looked up to, have been caught degrading themselves by their involvement in sexual scandals, even molesting and raping children right in the church and other places.
To reverse the incidence, he charged the church authorities to embark on programmes and well-researched sermons that would be intermittently preached to the congregation. He said that experts should be invited to churches to sensitize everyone to the tricks the perpetrators adopt to lure their targets to illicit sexual intercourse.
“When they are caught they immediately shift the blames to the devil. The church has failed in the area of producing purified leadership, so it needs to return to the moral values and holiness that true Christians are known for.
“Christian leaders in the older generation preached and lived holy lives, while the present generation churches focus more on prosperity and miracles without paying attention to the message of sanctification. This is one of the reasons we experience sexual recklessness.
“It is sad that the leadership in most churches has polluted the church with sexual pervasion, corruption and other fraudulent acts.
“Christians in Nigerian must return to God in uprightness like the church of old. They must preach against sexual recklessness on their pulpit. While we are shy to preach it, it has bedevilled the church. It is time the church addressed this issue.
“The sensitisation could be in form of workshops, seminars conferences, interactive sessions that can deal with sexual immorality trending in the church,” Akin-John said.
He raised the alarm that there were female ministers, widows, single parents, pastors’ wives and other categories of women who lure ministers of the gospel into sexual immorality.
The man of God recalled an experience of how he saw a beautiful, married lady with three kids and a good job go to her pastor to complain of loneliness and emotional dryness.
“Since her husband travelled abroad two years earlier, she became sex-starved. The pastor became sympathetic with her persistence and before you know it, she planted a kiss on the pastor’s cheek, asking him to help her release her body urge. She said she couldn’t find younger men to help her. Before the pastor could realize it, what he never bargained for happened. Thank God he was quick to confess the act and seek spiritual advice,” he said.
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