Prophets are expected to be holy, solemn and trusted, but when you have strong suspicion that one, who is overseeing your church, is sodomising your son, hell is always going to let lose. This is the dilemma of Pastor (Mrs.) Precious Ukpe, Overseer, Soul’s Deliverance Church of God, Ogudu, Lagos, and the reason for accusations and counter accusations. Dorcas Egede reports.
WHEN Pastor Precious Ukpe, the Overseer of Soul’s Deliverance Church of God, Ogudu, employed the services of a young prophet, Jeremiah Asuquo, little did she know that down the years, the gesture was to come with much more baggage.
Ukpe met young Pastor Asuquo when in 2016 she was in dire need of a competent hand to man the church her late husband founded. He was recommended by “Madam Alice,” Ukpe’s friend, who spoke loftily of this “young prophet from Ghana who is very good.”
Over the years, she had tried several pastors, but having been without one for a while, she quickly went after the young pastor, who was then resident pastor in another church, Land of Deliverance in Ogudu.
According to Pastor (Mrs.) Ukpe, “He worked with me for two years and six months” and everything went just right, with more people flocking into the church until mid-2018. And then, trouble set in. Things went awry and allegations and counter allegations ensued.
The beginning of the end
According to Ukpe, it all started, when she demanded that her 16-year-old son, Jeffrey (not real name), who had been staying with the prophet, returned home to her.
She recalled how in 2017, the prophet had prophesied “that I should bring my son to him, that God wanted him to take care of him as a father.”
She said she initially refused, saying he is her only child and couldn’t let him out of her sight; but November 2017 saw Ukpe releasing the boy. She claims, “he was with him till June 2018.”
Did she have any foreboding about releasing the boy? Ukpe’s answer was, “I didn’t notice anything that was not normal. I’d been hearing stuff about him, that he is gay, that he sleeps man to man, but I never saw him in that light.”
At a point, she confronted him on the rumour, “But he denied it. He told me he couldn’t do that, that he’s a virgin and had never slept with any woman in his life.”
“By January 2018, I asked him to release my son; that I didn’t want him to stay there again, that as my only son, I wanted him to be in the house with me. That was when the trouble started.”
Ukpe said the prophet was adamant. “He told me he couldn’t release the boy, that he would rather leave the church. True to his word, when he returned the boy, he left and scattered the church. All the members left with him.”
Could she be trying to discredit the prophet because he left the church? “Truly, it may look that way, but my boy and this Paul have said everything at the police station where they wrote their statement. Even the petition was written by Alausa people, not me.”
How come the issue of defilement never came up until November 2018 when the prophet left the church?
“The boy didn’t tell me what was going on because the prophet threatened that he would die, if he told anyone.”
She said the boy finally opened up because he couldn’t bear the abnormal feeling in his body anymore, plus the frequent defecating. “He said the prophet slept with him through his anus, not once, not twice.”
She said the case was reported to the human rights department at Alausa and her boy was taken for examinations, where it was confirmed that his anus had been penetrated and is now expanded. “Not my boy alone, Paul too. Paul used to be a drummer in our church.”
Ukpe also revealed that the prophet has been begging her. “He has been begging me to forgive him. If he is innocent, he would not be begging me; he will be asking me to go anywhere, and that this is defamation of character.”
Jeffery’s story
According to Jeffrey, he moved to the prophet’s house late 2017. Asked how the whole sexual violations started, he said, “After I moved in with him, he was now giving me signs, but I told him I wasn’t interested. He told me he was going to leave the church if I didn’t agree. I still said no, and then he started issuing me death threats. You know he’s a prophet. He told me I was going to die, that’s how I succumbed.”
Why didn’t he leave and go home? “I didn’t leave because I wanted him to stay in the church. It’s difficult to get a good pastor and I thought he was a good one.”
Asked if he could describe the experience, the boy said, “It was not a good experience. There’s this jelly, KY jelly. It’s a lubricant for aiding V penetration. That’s what he used.”
About the pain and what he felt in his body, Jeffery said, “If you wear trousers for too long, there’s this heat you feel and that heat brings this kind of pain down that axis.” He revealed that when the police took him for medical checks, “they said I have genital warts.”
As a result, he said “I was always depressed and angry. We even used to fight in the house most times. It also affected my studies because I couldn’t focus. But now everything is better.”
Was it a daily affair? “It wasn’t every day. Any time he feels like.”
PROPHET Jeremiah Asuquo, 25, is fondly called Prof by his older congregation and daddy by the younger ones. He is the founder of Arena of Solution International Church (ASIC), Ogudu, Lagos. This reporter decided to take him unawares by worshipping in his new church which he founded barely seven months ago.
Somehow he didn’t seem to be taken unawares, going by his first declaration: “Some of you, today might be your first time of coming here, some may be journalists, some may be press…, what matters is that God knows everything….”
After the three- hour service, the reporter requested to see the prophet. On hearing the reason for her visit, he said, “I wouldn’t have spoken without hearing from my lawyer but since you’re very polite and I was expecting you guys already….”
“The lady was my madam. I met her in 2016.” He began. “When I went to her church, they were only seven in number. I was serving under people at Ogudu here, she heard about me and said I should come and manage the church for her.”
Aside bringing numerical increase to the church, he said he also changed the outlook of the church. “Being a lover of music and God, I bought all the instruments in that church with my money, I’m even still left with a debt of N30,000. I have a picture of the church before and when I left. I bought wall papers, PCV; I changed everything in that church. We had over 500 members.”
On the allegation of abuse on the child, Asuquo said, “The said boy doesn’t live in my house, has never lived there. He used to come on weekends. I was staying with Inyang, Lovena, Blessing; these are all girls and two boys (Marvelous and Amos). These are the people I stayed with. They had girls and boys room, and I had my own room.”
Asuquo said the first time his former boss dragged him to the police station was on account of embezzling N5million from the church. “But they called an auditor, calculated the money and found out that I did not take a dime.”
She also accused him of assault and battery, adding that “We are still in court for that. This one about her son is a whole new allegation.”
Counting from May to November, he queried why it took his accuser so long to “come up with this accusation that I defiled her son? I left her church on the first Sunday in May, and the boy left my place the same day.”
Prophet Asuquo said Ukpe’s son came to sit for his WAEC examination in his area in Magboro, Ogun State, and that the idea for that came from her. “She brought the idea that the boys that stay with me used to write WAEC and pass. I bought everything for the boy; she just gave me N30,000 for registration. And the boy came, wrote his exams and went home to his mother. He didn’t live with me.
“He left my place after his exam, which was the same time I left the church. He stayed with his mother from that time till December. I didn’t hear anything. They have gone for check up. I said fine, what is your medical report? I have not seen it because I am not a lawyer. And you know police know their way of doing things.
“If it is true that I defiled this boy, let justice take its full course. But if it’s not true, let God that fights, fight them.” He said the boy in question is not a kid and if he was indeed being sexually abused, he could have left the place. “It is not as if I caged him in my house.”
When reminded of the threat of death, which the boy alleged, his response was, “Has the boy died now? This woman just wants to destroy my career. She told me she is going to deal with me. She said it countless times.”
He reiterated that this was “the first accusation (of being gay) that I’ve ever had in my life. I’m telling you the truth. You can do your investigation, I’ll give you the names of the churches I’ve pastored, Land of Deliverance in Ogudu here, Mount Zion Lighthouse Full Gospel Church, Shangisha, although the pastor is not around now.”
Does he plan on getting married anytime soon, this reporter wanted to know, as this would stem the tide of gay allegations?
“This year; I have a girlfriend. Marriage is not something you rush into.” He responded, and then he added rather emotionally, “What do I do with this woman? My heart is bleeding right now. These are the things that make people commit suicide.”
About the prophecy of the boy coming to stay with him, Asuquo said, “The person that gave the prophecy was Prophet, Doctor Uyotta Kingsley. He’s the owner of Christ City Church in Uyo. They are relatives. The prophecy came on a fateful Sunday service. He said, ‘Madam, allow this boy to be closer and stay with the prophet, so that through him, God can mould the boy.’ She now decided and said, in front of the congregation, ‘From today, take this boy as your brother.’ The prophecy was not from me.”
Has he ever been accused of being gay? “Never!” He said emphatically. “Since I was born, never! It was since I started coming to this woman’s church… If I am a gay, my God is not mad; I have served Him since I was four…. Even in my house, you can come and do your investigation. I’ve stayed there four years, I’ve never visited a police station before. There’s no criminal record anywhere. My name has never been in any newspaper for any bad thing.”
Expatiating further, Asuquo said, “I left because this woman has issues: if I’m close to you and you give me things, she would do everything to get you off me. Through this, I have lost prominent men. After service, she’ll just start quarreling for no just reason. There is what we call structures in the church, but she doesn’t have such. She wants to control finance, everything. You try to put people in positions; she says no, it’s her church. She may have changed over, if I’m not mistaking, 20 pastors in that church since her husband passed on 10 years ago.”
Speaking on how he met Pastor Ukpe, the prophet said, “Through Madam Alice. Madam Alice is the mother of Amos, who has stayed with me for four years.”
Part of the allegations coming from Ukpe and her son is that Amos and Marvelous are Asuquo’s sex toys, but he countered, saying, “Marvelous has been with me for 10/11 years. He was my student in school. That boy left Calabar and came and stayed with me here in Lagos. And he has been in Lagos for two years.”
Amos and Marvelous
At this point, this reporter asked to speak with the boys, and promptly the prophet called out to them, “Amy! Mama!”
It wasn’t difficult to spot Amos and Marvelous at ASIC that Sunday. Amos was on the keyboard, while marvelous led the praise worship and was also the lead singer during the choir rendition.
Marvelous, 19, who fondly calls the prophet daddy, told the reporter that the prophet is his uncle. When asked if they’re related by blood, he said, “No. he taught me when I was in primary school in Calabar. He guided me when I was in secondary school. When he was my primary school teacher, he used to live close to my house. My parents knew him. I used to go to his house to assist him in washing clothes, cleaning the house and doing one thing or the other.
Asked if the prophet is gay, Marvelous response was a sharp, “No. I have stayed with him for about 11years now. If I have experienced such a thing, I wouldn’t have been close to him. I am a grown up person, I know what is good and bad.”
In further defence of his uncle, Marvelous said, “Ma, all these things these people are accusing him of, they ganged up to plan it because he left that woman’s church.”
He explained that he came to Lagos “to further my education because my uncle (the prophet) said he would assist me. I’m about to collect the JAMB form now. After that, I will collect the NDA form.”
But contrary to the prophet’s claim that some ladies live with them, Marvelous said, “We stay in a duplex, I, Amos and our uncle. Before, his mum was around and one sister Inyang used to stay with us then. They both left last year.”
About Jeffery, Marvelous said, “When we were still in the other church, Jeffery used to go home with us sometimes on Fridays and when we’re coming to church on Sundays, he would return home. It was when he wanted to write WAEC that he came to stay with us, because he registered at Magboro. He stayed about two months during the WAEC period.”
Asked if he had a girlfriend, Marvelous said, “I used to have one when I was in Calabar. But since I came to Lagos, I had to focus on my education, because women are kind of distraction.”
And then it was the turn of Amos. He walked into the room looking visibly unsettled, although he claimed he was okay. He is the son of Madam Alice, who introduced the prophet to Pastor Ukpe.
Interestingly, he didn’t know exactly how he is related to the prophet; he just assumed he is family.
On why he moved in with the prophet, even when his mom stays in Lagos, he said, “I want my life to be better.” Of course there was also the promise of sponsorship. But why isn’t he in school, even after nearly five years of living with the prophet?
His curt answer was “I’ll get into school this year. I’ve done my WAEC. I tried for admission last year, but it didn’t work because of the Post JAMB.”
And then this reporter asked about the prophet’s girlfriend. With a shocked expression, Amos, chuckled before saying, “I’ve not seen him with any girl. He has female friends, but I don’t know the one he wants to get married to. No lady comes to see us except for our friend (Amos’ and Marvelous’). Presently there’s no female staying with us; once we had Inyang and Blessing who stayed up to six months, but they both left last year.”
When confronted with the allegation that the prophet is gay, Amos’ reaction was a little aggressive. “Do you see him as gay? Probably the reason they’re saying that is because there was a time it was just the two of us living together.”
He revealed that they stayed together about a year, stressing though that they were always having visitors, including “Ma Ukpe’s son.”
Asked if there was ever a prophecy that the prophet should take Jeffery as his son; Amos said, “the prophecy was given by one man, Uyotta. The man is related to Jeffery’s father. The man spoke to Ma Ukpe, and she agreed.”
Does Amos’ have a girlfriend? “No. I don’t want to have. My future is more important to me,” was his reply.
Back to the prophet, he reiterated his belief that the accusation was borne out of envy that his present church is doing well.
Pastor Godwin
This reporter also sought out Pastor Godwin, who is the founder of Land of Deliverance, Ogudu, where Prophet Asuquo ministered before he went to Ukpe’s church. Godwin however wondered why the whole allegation is coming out now that Asuquo has left the church.
“I don’t know much about him being gay, because when he was with me, nobody accused him of such and I did not hear any such rumour about him. But if the prophet was sleeping with her son for a long time, why didn’t she come up until he left her church. Could it be that all this is coming out because he left her church?”
Asked if his church also experienced numerical growth when the Asuquo was with him? Godwin said, “Yes. He’s the kind of person that once he enters your church, the whole place will be filled up.”
Pastor Timothy Etukudoh
Resident pastor, Timothy Etukudoh of Mount Zion Lighthouse Full Gospel Church inc., Shangisha, where the prophet was said to have pastored before moving to Land of Deliverance in Ogudu, however denied knowing Asuquo. “First of all, we don’t employ people to work in the church, except the ministers. We don’t employ prophets in the church. We only have members that worship in the church, who can prophesy…. Besides, I have come across many prophets, so, I wouldn’t know who you are talking about.”
When confronted with the story making the rounds that he once sent away a prophet because he was gay, Etukudoh’s reply was rather curt. “I’m not a medical doctor, how will I get to know when somebody is gay? Except one is caught in the act, madam, we cannot establish a prima facie case.”
That literally ended the conversation, as he refused to give any further comment.
