CYRIACUS IZUEKWE
Serious crisis has engulfed the Great Overcomers Ministry Church in Abaranje, Ikotun, a Lagos suburb over an allegation of adultery and rape levied against one of the church pastors.
P M.EXPRESS gathered that the alleged sex scandal has put the entire congregation in disarray as some members have left in annoyance because the church’s General Overseer, a female was in the thick of the whole scandal.
It was gathered that a former assistant pastor in the church, Okwudili Ozor was accused of allegedly sleeping both with the General Overseer, Prophetess Gloria Udeh and her 15-year old daughter, an act which has landed him in prison.
Trouble started when Prophetess Udeh accused Ozor of forcefully having carnal knowledge of her teenage daughter in January.
She reported the matter to the Police at Area M Command in Idimu, Lagos who arrested and detained for nine days before he was taken to court but luckily, the court did not sit on that day.
He was later released by the Police.
But in a twist, a team of Policemen from Idimu Police Station early Tuesday morning invaded Ozor’s house in Ikotun, Lagos, arrested and charged him before Ogba Magistrates’ Court for raping Gloria’s 15-year old daughter.
The Court’s Chief Magistrate, Mrs Davis Abegunde granted him bail but remanded in prison custody pending when he will perfect his bail condition.
But this latest arrest and the remand of Ozor has led to the opening of a can of worms.
The suspect denied ever sleeping with the teenage girl as alleged by the Prophetess, but instead he admitted he has had affairs with the woman who felt heartbroken that he dumped her for another woman.
According to him, the woman has been married for some years and had four children before she separated from her husband.
He said when he joined her church; the prophetess made him her assistant and asked him to marry her so that they can build the church together.
Ozor said he declined the proposal but told her he already had a woman in his village he wanted to marry and this did not go down well with her.
“She tried to pressure me to change my marriage plans but I refused. I later went ahead to marry my wife in 2015 and that’s when the trouble started,” he said.
The suspect claimed that after he was arrested in January but later released, the prophetess demanded that he should pay her N500,000 before she would withdraw the matter from the police.
He said he pleaded that he had no such amount to give her and she reduced it to N200,000, yet he could not raise the money and that’s when she decided to use her influences to deal with him.
When P.M.EXPRESS contacted Prophetess Gloria, she denied the claim that she was sleeping with Ozor.
According to her, the case she reported to the police was that of sexual assault on her daughter.
She claimed Ozor and his relations have been pleading for her to forgive him which she gave him condition which he had accepted.
Gloria said he was only angry with Udeh, who he accused of denting her image and that of her church following his allegations that they were sleeping together which had made some members to leave the church.
On why it took her two years before she reported the sexual assault matter to the police, she declined to speak further and walked away.
When our correspondent visited the Command to speak with the Area Commander, he was not around.
However, police source confirmed the incident and declined to make further comment on the matter.
