Sunday, December 15, 2024 -A dramatic scene unfolded at the Cherubim and Seraphim Church, Ona Iye Parish, in the Iloye area of Sango-Ota, Ogun State, the week before last, as a commercial driver, accompanied by his family and associates, clashed with the pastor and founder of the church, Prophet Abiodun John, in a highly publicized paternity dispute.
The driver, Badiru Folarin, who is the husband of a female church member
brought to the church for spiritual healing, screamed that the pastor claimed
ownership of his four-year-old child after he caught him having an illicit
affair with his wife, Morufat.
Folarin claimed the pastor’s s*xual escapades with his wife was revealed
by his 14-year-old son, Saheed, who told him that his mother was always
visiting and cooking for the clergyman while he was away and that the cleric in
turn visited their home at odd hours.
He said: ”The pastor claimed that my in-law had given my wife to
him as his wife. However, the question is, can a woman be given to two men as
wife?
”The pastor confronted me to my face that he is the biological father of
our last child, a four-year-old. Yet my wife rained curses on me, saying that
Ogun (Yoruba god of iron) should strike me dead so she can enjoy her
benefactor.
”I am a driver. I never enjoyed my wife at home. She was always away to
church for several days in the guise of vigils and special spiritual
protection. My mother-in-law was disturbed about my wife’s continuous absence
from home under the pretext of participation in church activities.”
Amid the yelling, screaming and cacophony of noise at the scene, Morufat
told her husband’s family members and bystanders that she was not in the least
prepared to leave her husband, although she conceded the paternity of the child
in question to the embattled pastor when asked to choose between the latter and
Folarin.
She said: ”No one should blame me for what has happened…and If you
all must know, I cannot be married to two men in my life…but my husband is not
ready to take care of me, he is a shameless man…I will deal with him when we
return home.”
Folarin, however, retorted: ”You cannot come back to my
house…anything can happen to you if you come back to my house.”
Recalling how the messy affair between the pastor and her wife began,
the father of six said he did not believe that the clergyman was having an
affair with his wife when neighbours alerted him until his son tipped him off
that his wife was having a tryst with the cleric at his house within the church
premises.
Folarin said: ”I did not realise that the pastor was sleeping with
my wife.
“I am a Muslim while my wife is a Christian. She was having some
spiritual attacks and went to the church for deliverance.
“Suddenly, she started frequenting the church, and when I heard that she
was having an affair with the pastor, I confronted her but she denied it.
”She would send my children to me for upkeep while at the church and I
usually sent money to her, not knowing that she was using my money to prepare
meal for her pastor-lover.”
”The pastor knows me very well. He had even given me some spiritual
items for use that would attract fortune, but my transport business witnessed a
reversal of fortune instead.
”I have been married to Morufat for more than 30 years and our first
child is 30 years old. I was giving her about N6,000 every day for upkeep.
“When I got home a few days ago, she rained curses on me. Her action got
my 14-year-old son, Saheed, angry, and he opened up that his mother had been
flirting with the pastor to the extent that she was cooking for the cleric with
the money I have been giving her as daily upkeep.
“My son said his mother had just returned from the church where she took
food to the pastor shortly before I returned home on that day.
”The pastor told me to my face that he is the biological father of my
last child, a daughter (Alimot).
“I gave my wife the sum of N68,000 when she was pregnant with our last
child, but she gave the money to the pastor and relocated to the church for
several months under the pretext of seeking spiritual protection.
“Along the line, we had accommodation problem, and that was when I gave
her money for a new accommodation. Instead, she spent the money on her lover
and later claimed she was sick and that she used the money for treatment.
”Again, I got some money and got another apartment for her at Plaza area
in Sango-Ota despite her insistence that she did not want me to get another
accommodation.
“I warned her against having any close affair with pastor and asked her
to stay in the new apartment.
“Surprisingly, she complained she did not like the fact the apartment is
in a one-storey building.
“I would give her N3,000 in the morning and N3,000 in the evening
because I usually left home around 5 am to take early turn to pick passengers
at the motor park.
“Last week, my son told me that his mother had been with the pastor’s
house for four days. I stormed the place and I was shocked to find them
together in a room half n*ked.
“The pastor tied a towel around his waist while my wife also tied a
piece of cloth around her waist while she pushed two of my little children to
play outside the room.
”She started abusing me and calling me all sort of names. I reported the
affair to my wife’s uncle and the old man slapped the pastor for luring my wife
to bed to the extent of impregnating her.
“We tried to take my children away from her but she bit off my hand
while the pastor claimed that he is the father of my last daughter, who is my
sixth child.
“The pastor told all of us at the scene that he is the biological father
of my daughter and that I cannot take the girl away from him.
“My wife said she was not ready to leave me and that she cannot also
leave her pastor-lover.
“I later discovered that she had aborted a pregnancy for the same pastor
some years ago.
“I cannot take my wife back and because the pastor has vowed to deal
with me.
“I have 13 siblings and only three of us are the surviving children of
my parent.
“I don’t want the pastor to kill me. Nigerians should save me from the
ruthless pastor.”
Speaking with our reporter, Saheed, Folarin’s son, who allegedly exposed
his mother’s illicit affair with the pastor, said his mother threatened to
poison him for exposing her affair with the pastor.
”My mother threatened to poison me for exposing her escapades with the
pastor of our church to my father.
“She called me an unfortunate child for telling my father that she even
cooked for the pastor.
“I know she attacked me because I knew too much about her secret affair
with the pastor.”
Giving his own side of the story, Pastor John explained that he is the
biological father of Morufat’s sixth child.
He said he had been having an on and off affair with the woman in the
last 20 years.
He said: ”My name is Prophet John Abiodun, the founder and
pastor of Cherubim and Seraphim Church, Orisun Iye Parish.
“I have been dating Morufat for about 20 years now. She told me that her
husband abandoned her with two children.
”My church was formerly located in the Ijamido area of Ota before I
moved it to Iloye area of Sango-Ota.
“Morufat came to my church about 20 years ago with two young children,
Serifat and Saidat, for deliverance and spiritual protection.
“When I noticed that she did not leave after some time, I asked her to
bring any of her family members.
”She later invited her aunt called Mama Lekan, who frequently visited
her at the church.
“She stayed with me in the church for about six months, during which we
started an affair.
“She later left and I did not see her again until about a year later.
”By the time she returned to my church in 2004, she was already pregnant
for her husband.
“I reprimanded her for getting pregnant for the same man she had claimed
was irresponsible.
”She said her husband had abandoned her again and bolted with a widow.
“I took her to a hospital when she went into labour and carried out
special prayers for her and she was safely delivered of the baby. Afterward, I
did not see her again.
”I ran into her again when I was supervising the construction of my new
church building in the neighbourhood of the apartment where she lives with her
husband.
“She later ran to me when she was owing a lender, and that was when we
reignited our affair.
”She had a disagreement with her husband and said she was no longer
interested in her marriage.
“She said she would have left her husband a long time ago but for her
mother’s insistence that she must not leave her husband. By that time, she
already had five children.
”My affair with her and the controversial pregnancy led to the
separation with my own wife who could not stand it and left me about three
years ago.
“Morufat’s mother knows that I am the real father of the baby, and I
struck a deal with her mother who was accompanied to my home by one of her
friends that I would come back for my daughter when she is 10 years old.
“It was during the discussion that my wife overheard that I was
responsible for Morufat’s pregnancy, hence, she quit our marriage.
“It is a pity that Morufat’s mother is not here. I would have challenged
her to say the truth.
”I took her(Morufat) on my motorcycle to the hospital when it was time
to deliver the baby.
“I paid for her delivery at the hospital, although I heard that her
husband had given her the delivery money too before she was discharged from the
hospital.
“I was not the one that buried the baby’s placenta: her husband
did. However, I am sure that I am the biological father of the girl.”
Prophet Abiodun boasted that he is not ashamed to affirm his affair with
Morufat and that she was impregnated by him.
”I can boldly say that I was responsible for the training of some of her
children in vocations.
“The husband was not responsible for the upbringing or naming of any of
their children.
“Morufat ran to me one day and had a clash with my wife, and that was
when my wife took the final decision to leave me.
”I cannot be ashamed to say it anywhere, any day, even it is on a radio
programme.
“I named the girl Bose because she was born on Sunday, while her husband
named her Shadiat. She was a twins as was revealed to me by ‘God’, but the
second child was evacuated from her womb dead.”
Prophet Abiodun, however, added that he cannot take Morufat as wife
because of her past relationship with other men.
”I cannot marry Morufat because I know about her journey and some of the
men she had dated in the past,” he said.
“I am only claiming my child because I know that she was impregnated by
me and I have a scan of the baby.
“Morufat is 46 years old, and she said it in the presence of everyone
that I am the real father of her last baby.
“Besides, my family members and hers know that I am the real father of
the baby, and I am saying it again that I am not ashamed to say so.”
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