Pastors descend on Church Overseer who is to die by hanging in Rivers State for the murder of his pregnant mistress, her friend and nine-year-old daughter.
The involvement of supposed men of God in heinous crimes has left a big
question mark as to who really is a man of God and how does the public know one?
In a recent case, in Rivers State, the General Overseer of Altar of Solution and Healing Assembly, Pastor Chidiebere Okoroafor, blamed the devil after being sentenced to death by a Port Harcourt High Court for the murder of his choir mistress, her friend and 11-month-old toddler.
And the response from the clergy was “you were never a man of God.”
Manifestation of the beast in Afam, Oyigbo Local Government Area based Okoroafor came into light when operatives of the Homicide Department of Rivers Police Command apprehended him on December 17, 2017 following the alarm raised by one Joseph Ezenwa.
Ezenwa’s wife, Chigozie, with nine months old Christabel strapped to her back, had accompanied her friend, Orlunma Nwagba, to meet Okoroafor, their pastor.
In the police account of his confession, Okoroafor had, in a secret sexual affair, impregnated 25-year-old Orlunma, his church choir mistress.
Both friends on December 11, 2017 set out to confront the General Overseer to resolve the scandalous pregnancy issue.
Apparently decided on erasing the looming scandal on his own terms, Okoroafor had separated his visitors.
He lured the pregnant choir mistress to an uncompleted building while asking her friend to stay three “poles” away.
According to then-DCP Cyril Okoro of the Rivers Police Command, the pastor strangled Orlunma in the uncompleted building.
He then rejoined Chigozie and left with her and her baby on a tricycle (keke) to Afam Roundabout.
From the roundabout, they took a motorbike on lonely Igberu Road.
Okoroafor murdered his second victim in an isolated bush, using the wrapper with which Chigozie strapped her baby to her back to suffocate her.
“The baby was equally discovered dead. This murder by the suspect was premeditated, callous and devoid of human sympathy,” Okoro had said, adding that the pastor manipulated both friends after taking advantage of the trust they had in him.
Retribution
Eight years after, Justice S.O Benson, in the June 6, 2023 judgment, said the evidence and confessional statements from the pastor showed he committed the crime.
The prosecution, having proven the case of murder against the cleric, the judge ordered that Okoroafor be killed by hanging or served lethal injection which kills faster.
Counsel from the state Ministry of Justice, Precious Ordu, said the prosecution was undaunted despite receiving threats through the trial and that it was gratifying that “justice has been served to state, the complainant, and the convict”, while also thanking the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) which brought up the case before the state took over.
Resolved to appeal the judgment, counsel for the defendant, Dr Innocent Ekwu, said the court ‘misconceived the law’, adding, “The court held there was no eyewitness, not even one throughout the trial. The court also held there was no circumstantial evidence linking the fellow to murder.