How PH pastor throws wife away, brings in mistress

…wife says N20,000 demand by police discouraged her, FIDA from seeking justice

By Ezurike Ugochukwu

Tales of unbelievable acts allegedly being perpetuated by some acclaimed men of God in Nigeria today indeed jars the ears, they happen too frequent.

The pathetic story of Mrs Anwuri Chukwuigwe, the wife of Pastor Blessing Otobo, General Overseer of Unstoppable Gospel Movement Ministry, also known as Prevailers Praise Ministry” of number 52 Aker Road, Rumuolumeni, Port Harcourt, Rivers State calls for retrospect.

Anwuri decried how her husband abandoned her for a woman, Gloria Ndubuisi Ogu, she never expressed any grudge in accepting into her house on getting to know she had lost her husband,(widow).

She stated how her husband muted renewing the rent of their apartment at Iwofe area of Port Harcourt rather when it expired, he got a new accommodation, abandoned her at the old place, took Gloria despite all her efforts to relocate with him.

Pastor Otobo

According to her, the husband suddenly started telling people he was no longer interested in their marriage saying that Gloria was her God-ordained wife and that marrying her was a mistake, moved into the new apartment with Gloria and her daughter, Chidera, her (Anwuri) three children and other persons staying with them without her in 2019.

Chukwuigwe stated that Gloria was somebody they met in a church, in Diobu, Port Harcourt, and that was her first time of meeting her. “She was still mourning her husband, I do not know her husband, and I met her in our old church which we no longer attend.

“Then I had my first son, as time went by, we became close as church members, as a widow who needed help, in my conviction, I felt it was necessary to join my husband in rendering help to her before we relocated to Iwofe still in Port Harcourt.

“By then we had left that church, she also had left the church for some reasons. She was still coming from Diobu to fellowship with us at Iwofe because we were using our sitting room then for fellowship.

Initially, while we were at Iwofe, we were not in our house, things were so difficult for us, I took her to my village, Ikwerre, and we stayed one year until we secured our own accommodation there in Iwofe”, she expressed.

Speaking further she said, “Before we came back fully, I noticed that each time I came to visit my husband who was still in Port Harcourt then even as I was still with the children in the village, I would find out that Gloria was in the house where my husband stayed with his cousin, even when she ought to have gone.

“When I asked my husband why she was still in the house when every other persons that came for fellowship had gone, he would get angry as if I was asking for too much. I would endure, believing he is a child of God who knows and holds the word of God to a high esteem. I would show understanding and we moved on, with the intention of supporting my husband’s ministry, all these were before she came to live with us.

Late Gloria

“What transpired within that one year that we were not around was what I do not know. One of the days, she came seeking for help to transport her back, so dejected, I bought into the thought of my husband, that since we had enough accommodation, I supported the idea of her coming to stay with us, that was how she started staying with us.

“Her late mother was aware, because I met her on one occasion, her younger brother who is their first son was aware including his wife. Her younger sister called Olivia Chimuanya had also visited her in my house.

“Even when we moved from that place, she moved with us. Precisely, I had a very good relationship with the late Gloria, she stayed with us for over three years before her unmanageable attitude started rearing its ugly head,” she continued.

Chukwuigwe said that at a point, she really became suspicious of late Ogu and her husband Blessing, but for the fact she had no concrete evidence to say this or that was going on.

That between that period of relocating from the place Gloria started staying with them to the place they eventually separated in 2019, she began to fall sick every now and then, from one sickness to the other, got to a point her blood percentage was 18 per cent.

Continuing, she said,“I never knew I was fighting a spiritual battle for my dear life. I couldn’t conclude on anything, but my intuition was telling me that something was going on. Until one day, one of the members of the church named Augusta called me, I was still sick, she asked me to come to her house, I managed to get to her house.

“She asked me if I would be able to bear the burden of what she was going to tell me, I assured her I would. Her prompting was based on my health situation.

“She told me that Pastor Blessing Otobo told her and one other church member Nume by name who is now late, that he was given a prophesy that I became his wife in error. That the late Gloria was his God destined wife. He told them that I as ‘his enemy’ was going to die in 2015 after which they would get married.

“Within the said period, I was battling with all forms of sicknesses and he refused to contribute a kobo to my treatment even when I had surgery, if not for my church members.

“I was also told of another story narrated by Gloria of how I handed my wedding ring over to her, that in the said dream, she assured me of taking adequate care of my children.

“Within this period also, he had stopped eating what I cooked. When I recalled and recounted all these going on, they were very painful, I cried my heart out, I had no option than to manage the situation.

“I had to come back home and was observing what was going on. I later found out that what Augusta told me was real. Augusta and Nume were admonished not to by any means reveal to me what he had told them. It was not even only her, he told many people in the church even neighbours in the same compound.

“After one month, I went to a man my husband recognized then as his mentor, a well-respected man of God. I went to him and narrated all that the lady told me and what I had been observing too.

“The man sent for him, he came, the man asked me to repeat what I told him, I did, he denied it, he said I was making up the stories.

“The man said ok, even if you want to help somebody, there should be a time frame. Now you said it’s somebody you are helping, get another accommodation for her and relocate her.

“When he got to know that some of his members have revealed this to me, he went to their houses and ‘laid courses’ on them, somebody like Augusta, one Henry family and others. Some, he called on the phone that they had betrayed him. That he never asked for too much from them just to keep his secret for him. To them, it was an evil they would not want to be partakers in,” she further narrated.

According to her, after that, it became worse, and the husband managed to relocate the late Gloria to one of his church members. However, in less than two months, she came back, this time with renewed vigor, very bellicose, she occupied everywhere in all the rooms with her members. It became difficult for her to enter the kitchen anymore. She lost touch of what the kitchen was like, became a foreigner in her home.

While all these agonies subsisted, Chukwuigwe said she reported the matter to the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), they invited him and he spoke to them nonchalantly that there was no issue between them, that he never knew what she was saying.

“FIDA told me, it’s not within them to dissolve marriages, unless the couple had agreed to that, they asked him if he was still interested in our marriage, he said he didn’t know if he was.

“They asked him how long it would take him to know if he was still interested, he said six months, they accepted his condition. However, six months later, he was still not giving them any reasonable response. They now invited Gloria, she did not come. At this point, they petitioned the police headquarters, Moscow road, Port Harcourt.

“The police invited me, they took my statement, they asked me for Twenty Thousand naira (N20,000) to enforce the arrest. I never had that sum of money, I pleaded with the police for Ten Thousand (N10,000), and they turned down my request. Since I have no one to fall back to for help, no parents or any other person than God, I abandoned the case resorted to fate, to fend for my self.”

She said even though her husband had never asked after her again even when she had surgery (before she left the house), and has not asked after her not even now that her mistress is late.

Chukwuigwe said she was not interested in the marriage anyway, nothing about the marriage interests her, she was only concerned on how to give a meaning to her life and be useful to her creator, adding that her only worry is that she is not allowed to see her God given children.

“As a woman who ordinarily ought to have those children with me while he comes around to visit them. Today, I don’t see my children even when they see me along the road, they dare not talk to me nor stop. I am in agony.

“I am so disturbed of what kind of information and environment they are exposed to. I am not unaware my life is more endangered now.

“For speaking out, my life is at risk, even his church members would be after my life, all those he deceives with his prophecies will now become attack dogs. I had suffered all forms of dehumanization in their hands,” she concluded.

A former member of the church who wouldn’t want the name in print narrated how a man who still lives near the church went and dropped his wife’s belongings in the pastor’s house and told him to take full possession of the wife since the she now operates from the pastors house and does not show any regard for him, nor take orders from him again but from the pastor.

“The said woman at a time put the husband into so much debt when she was using some of their shop attendants to siphon money from the husband’s provision store until the attendants decided to expose her and reveal the fraud to the man.

She started, “In my suggestion, government should pay attention to that church. A lot that does not meets the eye goes on there.

“The police should arrest everyone there including children, let them make statements, they will extract useful information from them. If they had cooperated with FIDA and enforced the law that time the pastor’s wife was asked to bring N20,000, may be they would have arrested this situation, may be also, Gloria wouldn’t have died.

“Majority of the women in that church presently are divorcees. These pastors are doing a lot of abominable things pretending to be serving God, it’s really unfortunate,” she said.

It will be recalled that when contacted by Nation Update to respond on this and other issues, Pastor Blessing expressed reluctance to respond to our reporters questions. Instead, he referred our correspondent to one Ikechukwu, a brother to the late Ogu. After explaining why his response was important, Otobo said he was inside a mall.

Asked if he should be contacted later, Otobo said: “I am not afraid of what you are going to write. I have told you I am in a supermarket don’t you get that? If you are a professional, you ought to get that. Let me get out of this place, what kind of nonsense is this.” He hung the call and his phone was subsequently switched off.

Iringe-Okoko Rivers State PPRO

The Police Public Relations Officer(PPRO), Rivers State, Grace Iringe-Koko when contacted said they had gotten report of the matter lodged at the Iwofe Police Station of the state.

The proactive PPRO said the Divisional Police Officer(DPO) of the station has invited the pastor after which they would carry out proper investigation into the matter.

According to the PPRO, “the matter was reported yesterday evening(Wednesday) and invitation has been extended to the parties to enable a full scale investigation on the matter.”

On the alleged demand of N20,000 which has taken a long time, she said that such might have happened without the DPO and senior officers knowing, Iringe- Okoko however condemned such act wherever they exist.