Pastor Prevents Wife’s Burial With ‘Bouncers'

It was a bizarre drama over the weekend when an Abuja- based cleric, Jacob Oyedepo, invited ‘bouncers’ to disperse relatives and friends who had gathered to bury his wife on a property the deceased was said to have developed before death came calling.

Oyedepo, according to some sources, works with the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) although there were those who expressed doubt about his real role as a Pastor in the church. The deceased, Mrs. Christiana Adetola Oyedepo (nee Abu) died on May 2, 2017 after a sickness that was said to have lasted for about three months. She was aged 45 years.

The incident, which took place at Oke-Andi area of Ilorin, Kwara State, sent tongues wagging as to why a cleric would take such a step over a woman that was married to him for 17 years and had four kids before she died. There were speculation that the cleric had attempted to sell the uncompleted property and was concerned that burying the woman on the site would discourage prospective buyers from the property.

Family members claimed that the deceased had embarked on the project with loans obtained from a cooperative society and was still servicing the loan when she died.

The deceased was said to have been a teacher in one of the public schools in the state and had developed the property on her own. Family sources claimed that their marriage had been rocked by allegations of maltreatment allegedly by the cleric but that the deceased had kept it under wrap to prevent public ridicule.

A family source said the two had met in church and started their relationship there.

“She was head of choir and he was head of Youth team in the church,” the source within the family said, adding: “Our parents never approved of the marriage initially because the deceased just came home to introduce the man and insisted that she was in love with and that he was a good Christian.

That was what made us to finally accept. We didn’t know there was a lot of abuse in the marriage until she gave birth to the fourth child and she began to speak about it.”