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.
Good news for the parents of a stolen baby in Abeokuta, Ogun State. The
childless woman Emmanuela Subomi who had stolen the baby has returned the eight month
baby. The baby, Daresimi was returned under the cover of night last
Friday to the Celestial Church where it was stolen.
