•Says she has no regrets helping man of God starved of sex by wife
Life, they say, is never a bed of roses but a journey full of ups and downs. That much is the story of Esther Nanu, a young girl from Awe Local Government Area, Nasarawa State, who has had her good times but currently faces serious life challenges.
Esther allegedly suffered sexual exploitation from no less a figure than a former pastor of her New Vision Church who, rather than take responsibility for his action, decided to force the baby on another man.
Esther has been left at the receiving end of the intrigue as her planned marriage was aborted by the errant pastor who did not only deflower her but also put her in the family way.
The baby boy from the pregnancy, according to her, is now approaching age seven and would not stop asking for his father. Esther is also under pressure from her father to trace the parents or native community of the man responsible for her pregnancy. Unfortunately, she had lied to her parents that an army officer was responsible for the pregnancy and had been killed in Maiduguri, Borno State while fighting against Boko Haram.
She said: “I had lied to my parents that it was an army officer that impregnated me and that he was killed by Boko Haram when he was transferred to Maiduguri.
“I lied to my parents that I met the soldier that impregnated me in Keffi but few months after our relationship, he was transferred to Maiduguri where he was eventually killed by Boko Haram.
“But in actual sense, it was my pastor who impregnated me and he is the biological father of my baby boy”. She said.
Our correspondent gathered there was a plan by the said pastor to take custody of the boy under the pretext of adoption so that his wife would not know the truth. But Esther’s parents are said not to be comfortable with the arrangement.
Esther said: “My pastor impregnated me. I have a child for him which people are not aware of. I lied that the man who impregnated me died in Maiduguri fighting Boko Haram, just to make my family stop inquiring about the baby’s father.
“But my pastor is the real father of my baby. He is married with five kids, all girls, while I have a son for him.”
‘How we fell in love’
Asked how the relationship started, Esther, a resident of Masaka in Karu Local Government Area, who accused the pastor of turning her into a sex object and warned her never to tell even her closest friend about it, said she had attended the church while the said pastor was in charge.
She said: “Some time in 2016, he approached me with a lustful look, but I told him I was in a relationship and was about to wed. Although my husband to be was a Catholic, every arrangement had been perfected and I was preparing to swift over to join him in the Catholic to commence the wedding process.
But the pastor insisted and I accepted. It was actually difficult for me to understand my decision
“Our first day together was in a hotel in Keffi. He had gone there to book a room before I came, and had earlier that day took me to do some shopping.
“So when I came, he started touching me, and in no time, he pulled my clothes off, and I was already weak because of the shopping we had earlier gone to do.
“Before I realized what was going on, he had started sleeping with me without any protection.
“As time went on, he was creating time for us to meet in one of the hotels in Keffi. And because I schooled in Keffi, I normally told my husband to be that I was trying to assemble some old friends/mates to form committees for the planned wedding.
“We regularly met in Keffi and spent quality time together while my husband to be was working in a private company in Abuja, which was taking much of his time.
“My husband to be was not too good in bed but the pastor was excellent, so I always enjoyed our stay together. That was my biggest attraction to him as against my proposed husband.”
According to her, when the pressure became too much from her parents, she had to confess that there was nothing like an army officer anywhere but Pastor Joseph who impregnated her.
“When my father confronted the pastor, he was ashamed so he moved his family and vanished to an unknown destination. All his telephone lines, she said, were switched off.
“He sold the house where he was staying and left me with the boy while an assistant pastor took over the running of the church. Pastor Joseph is from Osun State, but I have never been there. He has left me with this boy to suffer alone”
Esther added: “I understand that as human beings, we cannot cheat nature. I’m one of the committee members of the church and I do participate actively in the church choir.
“There was this magnet that pulled the pastor and I together. It was like a force.
“One day, he explained to me in the most pathetic way how his wife had starved him of sex for months for reasons he did not consider genuine. So I actually wanted to fill the gap because I am naturally an emotional and considerate person.
“I am very sure that God would not judge me negatively because of my gesture and for yielding to the pastor’s request. I only tried to satisfy a man who was in dire need.
“He was been starved of sex by his wife so I had to leave spirituality behind to get him satisfied, and that led to him impregnating me.
“It all started like a Hollywood movie. The scenes reeled from one point to the other and we had fun in different hotels on regular basis.
“He confessed that I made him feel like a man, and I was proud of myself. Even my proposed husband found it difficult to understand the relationship, because the man is a pastor and no one would suspect that any dirty romance was going on between us.
“When he openly told me that I made him happy, I comforted myself that if I could satisfy another man, then I could satisfy my proposed husband even though he was not as good in bed as the pastor.
“I was not actually patronising my action, but only being responsible about some sensitive sexual matters. Yes, we did and continued until he got me pregnant. My proposed husband suspected and aborted our planned marriage.
“My affair with the pastor remained a secret until he got me pregnant. I requested an abortion, but to my surprise, he declined my suggestion and wanted me to keep the baby.
“I had my reasons for not wanting to keep the baby. The pastor would not marry me while I already had a man who was waiting to marry me.
“We had actually done the introduction and commenced the process for the pride price and wedding when I got pregnant.
“I did not want to jeopardise my dream marriage to my proposed husband who had already commenced preparation at that time, which is why I insisted that I must get rid of the baby.
“But the pastor insisted that his spirit told him the baby would be a boy, and since he only had five girls with his wife, he begged me and I eventually agreed to keep the pregnancy.
“After about nine months, I was delivered of a baby boy and he was happy and still happy that at least the baby boy he had waited for endlessly had become a reality as God finally opened the door through me.”
Asked what their relationship is at the moment, she said: “We still see and have sex. I don’t have feelings for any other man.
“I don’t know what to do. I know we cannot get married because of his position, but my child refers to him as Daddy because that is what we normally call him, and he told his wife that he wants to adopt my son, while my parents want to know the origin of the said army officer so that the man’s family would know that their late son had a son somewhere.
“I am making this revelation not because I completely regret my action of taking full control of a married pastor, but because I have sensed something that is really not going to work for me and the boy in the most positive way.”
Asked why there was no effort between him and the pastor to engage in protected sex, Esther said: “My pastor kept having sex with me without using condom, which resulted into pregnancy. He warned me not to abort it; that his spirit told him it would be a baby boy and he would take full responsibility of the child
“Initially, I didn’t see anything wrong in opening my legs for a pastor who is married with five kids, all girls, because he too is a human being and he has feelings just like any other person.
“Besides there are many cases of pastors ‘toasting’ girls, but I didn’t envisage that the matter would get to this point and turn out like I am hiding the identity of the biological father of my son from my parents.
“But my pastor actually slept with me many times and got me pregnant.
“Despite the fact that the pastor knew that I was preparing for wedding, he insisted on not taking a “no” for an answer. I bought several condoms but he refused to use them until he got me pregnant.”
Pending marriage aborted
Esther expressed disappointment that her pregnancy occurred at the point she was going to get married “and me and my proposed husband were preparing to get our wedding set.
“Suddenly, pregnancy occurred, and I shielded the pastor and blamed it on a non-existent army officer.
“The man who was ready to marry me felt disappointed and left, and I later told my parents that Boko Haram killed the army officer.
Efforts made by our correspondent to reach Pastor Joseph for comments failed as the phone number given to him failed to go through.
Our correspondent, however, met Esther’s father, a retired railway worker, in Lafia, and he said he needed to set the records straight.
He said: “My daughter initially told me that the person that impregnated her was an army officer. I wanted to know the village and state of the said officer, because if you go to the Army Headquarters, you only need to mention his name and when he was transferred to Maiduguri. The records would be there.
“But after much pressure, she changed the narrative and told us it was Pastor Joseph. I went there myself and sought an audience with him. But when I confronted him with it the situation, he denied it; that he would not do a thing like that.
“He was probably afraid that I would expose him and he would be put to shame. He quickly left after selling his property.
“It is actually not a media thing, I will take up the matter with the church, I will get the police involved through a lawyer before I declare him wanted eventually.”
Esther told our correspondent that she never knew that the man would run away and leave her and the boy behind.
“Now his number is not going through. I regret sleeping with my pastor. He has ruined my life by getting me pregnant and disappearing when my father confronted him.”
