EVERYTHING came like a thunderbolt. Everyone is discussing the fate of a Warri-based pastor and could hardly make any logical meaning out of it all.
First it was his family – wife and four children – who was wiped out by a mysterious midnight inferno while the pastor was away. Less than two years after, June 26, 2016 to be precise, the man himself, Pastor John Kayoda of the Love District of the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC), Ekakpamre, Ughelli South council area of the state, was found dead on his bed with a running generator in the passage and fume everywhere.
Neighbours and relatives, who relayed how the clergy man lived his last few hours, said not much was known about the cause of his death, other than the fact that he turned on a power generator, placed it in the passage way to his residence, slept off and went to glory therefrom. This explanation, in itself, has been described as mysterious because it came in almost the same manner the disaster that took his family came; the inferno was believed to have been sparked by an electrical malfunctioning.
According to sources, Pastor Kayoda, who recently got transferred to the Ekakpamre Circuit of the church, had summoned members of his new church to a massive combined service the morning of the day he was to meet his Maker. Kayoda, just four days in the new parish, had told his parishioners to all come around the next morning, being Monday, for a morning devotion he was going to lead. Like the good sheep that many of the members of the church are, several members had trouped to the church to be part of the devotion.
“The members came en masse, singing and dancing, but they became curious when they saw his car, but their new pastor was nowhere in sight to lead them in the devotion. When they waited for a long time, they started asking, ‘where is our district superintendent?’ They then went to the vicarage, where they heard the sound of the generator from inside the house. That was between 6:30am and 7:00am,” the Chairman of the Warri District of CAC, Pastor Emmanuel Orode, narrated.
He added: “They first forced the window open and saw their pastor lying inside. They discovered that the generator was still on in the corridor; that was not the normal place a generator ought to have been, there was no exit for the fume. When they entered the house, they perceived fume everywhere in the house. And it is believed that, that was what suffocated him to death.
“If they had observed that there was still life, may be they would have managed to save him because they made attempt to rush him to a nearby hospital, but they discovered that he was not breathing any longer. The members who were on ground immediately alerted the Ekakpamre Police Station of the development, before I was called upon.”
The unfortunate incident has continued to evoke questions and suspicion, with so many assuming that there must be some spiritual or conspiratorial involvement in the way the pastor and his family died. Questions begging for answers include: Why did the mystery midnight that wiped out his entire family happen while he was away? Why will a man of his experience put a generator in a passage where there is no cross ventilation? Why did he call the morning devotion early that day? Questions! Questions! Questions!
FLASHBACK TO SEPTEMBER 2014:
It was in the early hours of Thursday, September 25, 2014 and the entire family, with the exception of their father, Pastor Kayoda, who had the previous day travelled to Ikeji-Arakeji in Osun State, attending a pastors’ conference, were supposed to be sleeping, resting from the previous day’s stress. But alas, the night was corrupted by death.
A fire, which was suspected to have been sparked by an electrical fault or power surge, as power supply was said to have been problematic on the night, consumed the entire family – mother and four children – left behind by Pastor Kayoda. The fire started at about midnight, according to the first set of eyewitnesses who could give an idea of what went wrong. One of them said they got to the scene at about midnight to 12:30am.
Describing the last moments of the deceased family members, one of the earliest rescuers at the scene of the midnight fire incident, Bright December, said the situation was quite helpless. The five members of the family: the 45-yearmother, Mrs Grace Emuoboghwo Kayoda; the four children: 13-year-old first son, Igbunuoghene Enoch Kayoda; 11- year-old Oghenemaro Jesu-Ovieme Kayoda, a girl; 10-year-old Oghenewona Nehemaih Kayoda and seven-year-old baby girl of the house, Oghenekpe Kenbe Kayoda, were all trapped in the house. They were barred with iron bars, wooden doors and louvred windows, which prevented help from reaching them from the frantic rescuers outside.
According to December, a visitor to one of the houses sharing fences with the church, he was one of the first few people to arrive the disaster scene. He said that the fire had already taken over the Mission House and was about leaping unto the church’s main building. He got there at about midnight and at that time, he still met two of the five persons alive: the mother and the last girl, fighting to escape from the scary fire monster.
He saw Mrs Kayoda and Kenbe, who were on the door and the window sides respectively, calling out for help, shouting and grappling at every other thing within reach to escape the horrifying fire. While the mother and the last-born were fighting for their lives, at least the part of it opened to the other three children were not in sight. According to him, they were believed to have by now lost their own fight because “their bodies were found where they slept for the night”.
“It took about one hour before fire fighters could be alerted because it was midnight and we were all shouting and trying to see how to rescue them. It took another one hour before the fire fighters came. By this time, the woman and the little girl had lost the battle. The little girl was found dead close to the window; she was just there banging, but there was no way we could help. The windows and the doors were all guarded with protectors. It was difficult to go through, if not, we would have broken through to rescue them”, December narrated.
By the time the fire was put out, only the charred bodies and burnt house effects were left. The fire service men had tried their best to put the fire out, but their best was not enough to save even one of the lives in the house. The disaster was documented with the police and the corpses were deposited at the morgue of the Warri Central Hospital.
Now, less than two years after, the pastor himself died of what was suspected to be a generator fume. Was it a coincidence? Or was there a spiritual angle to the whole saga? Do the relations suspect any foul play?
Speaking to The Nation in Warri during the week, an aunt of the deceased Pastor, Mrs Faith Ederi, said he would not be buried like one who had no loved ones. She said the family was going to give him a befitting burial. She said although the circumstances of his life and death, relating to how he lost his family and his eventual death all within a period less than two years were unsettling, God definitely has the final say in the whole story. Not writing off the possibility of a spiritual manipulation, she said whoever might be involved definitely has God to contend with.
“We thought we had even marched on, not knowing we were still back. Losing him is a great tragedy to our family. The two families – the Okike and the Kayoda, are missing him and we will miss him forever. We just pray God to grant him eternal rest. It is a very big problem. We want to give him a befitting burial, we don’t just want to drop him in the grave and leave him like that. I will get back to you to let you know when we are burying him. Even if we suspect anything, we are just human beings, God has the final say. If there’s any plot indeed, those behind it will still meet their Waterloo, they will still reap the fruits of their wicked fruits. That’s all I can say”, she said.
Also speaking on how the unfortunate incident had hit the church, Pastor Orode said it was a blow, adding that the only consolation the church has been the fact that his faith and standing with God was not a secret. He said the church was planning to join the family in giving him a befitting burial.”The church has already started dialoguing with the members of his family. The church will be financially involved, but to an extent,” he said.
He added: “The issue of death is something that a mortal man cannot interpret; it is only the immortal that has the full interpretation because we may be giving it an interpretation along with our own feelings, but God who is the owner of life is the one who can best interpret when that life is taken. Even if you ask God why, He won’t give you an answer immediately.
“When it comes to matters of death, especially when it’s surrounded by these kind of circumstances, the Christian has to be speechless because your statement can either offend or not offend God. Nobody plans for death and when it calls, it becomes very mysterious to humanity. Whether it is a covenant from anywhere, we don’t know and we cannot attribute it to anything”, Orode said in respect of the comment likely to follow the death of his co-labourer.
