Commotion erupted at the United Methodist Church, Mafoluku in the
Oshodi area of Lagos State on Sunday, as congregation of the Church
chased out their pastor, Barkuma Andrew for allegedly impregnating his
housemaid.
The Pastor was suspended from leading
the church seven months ago when the church found out that he has been
sleeping with his housemaid, Grace and also taken her for an abortion
after finding out she was pregnant.
The
members had petitioned the Central Conference of the church in Taraba
State to investigate the alleged atrocity. They, however, sought the
service of another pastor three weeks ago when the district reportedly
failed to probe Andrew.
Members had come to church around 10am for Sunday service only to see
that Andrew and some “unknown” people had commenced the service.
It was gathered that the development resulted in a breach of the peace as Andrew and his group were chased out of the church.
The
pastor’s secretary, Moses Sherima revealed to Punch that, the pastor
had sent his wife to the village after impregnating Grace.
“My
room is opposite pastor’s apartment and I was his secretary. When he
started dating that girl (Grace), I called his wife’s cousin, Favour, on
the matter. She said Grace used to tell her whenever the pastor had sex
with her.
At a point, I had to move upstairs when I could no longer bear it.
The day that abortion happened, I was sleeping inside my room when I
heard Grace screaming. I rushed there and saw blood coming out from her
private parts. When the wife came back from one of her numerous
journeys, he told her to send Favour away.” Moses revealed.
Another
church member, John Komboroh, said the church was embarrassed by
Andrew’s conduct, adding that they were tired of his leadership, He
said:
“The petition of adultery against the pastor had been sent
to the bishop at the Central Conference. He came here, but did not do
anything about it. That was why we wrote to the main body, the Southern
Conference to give us another pastor. His (Andrew’s) action is an
embarrassment to us. We don’t want him again.”
The new pastor of the church, Reverend James Sunday, said:
“We
were about to start our service this morning when we met the old pastor
and some unknown people already holding the service. I calmed down my
people to avoid chaos.”
Another resident and a female member, who
identified herself only as Blessing, said the pastor had once made
sexual advances to her.
“My husband is not always at home. The
pastor would call me in the night and asked if I had slept. One day he
entered my room and gave me a soft slap on my back. I had only the
wrapper on me. I was surprised and told my neighbours.”
Meanwhile,
Men from the Makinde Police Division, including the DPO, were said to
have intervened after the incident was reported at the station.
1 comment:
I witnessed it first hand, it was so annoying, one of the many reasons I dnt like going to church, don't know what even pushed me to go with my neighbor
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