Following a petition to the Police on threat to life and denial of access to his children by an ex-Pastor of his church, the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, has ordered a probe of the General Overseer of Omega Fire Ministries International, Apostle Johnson Suleman, who was also accused sleeping with the wife of the petitioner.
In three videos posted on Instagram on Sunday, the aggrieved pastor accused Suleman of sleeping with his wife and destroying his marriage.
However, his wife, Pastor Faith Edeko, who heads the Abuja branch of Omega Fire Ministries in Utako, denied the accusation, saying her estranged husband who has left the church was trying to destroy her life.
The IGP in a letter addressed to the Deputy Inspector-General of Police, Force Intelligence Bureau, Garki, dated January 5, 2021, with reference number CB:7000/IGP.SEC/ABJ/Vol.515/561, and signed by the Principal Staff Officer II to the Inspector-General of Police, ACP Iliya Doma, directed for an investigation into the claims.
The petition against Apostle Suleiman written by V.C Ezenagu & Associates on behalf of Pastor Davids, was entitled, “Criminal Petition Against Apostle Johnson Suleman for Enticement of a Married Woman; Adultery; Unlawful Criminal Restraint to Access Children and Threat to Life’.
Narrating how the events unfolded, Davids said he met Apostle Suleman in 2003 while he was in school. He said they became very close and was eventually ordained a pastor of Omega Fire Ministries on June 9, 2006 by Apostle Suleman and served the church for over 15 years before his exit in 2019. He attached his pastoral certificate with licence number 125 to the petition.
Davids, who wept in 3 videos posted on Instagram on Sunday, said he began a relationship with his wife in secondary school and they courted for about 11 years before marriage.
In 2008, he continued, he introduced his wife – who was still his fiancée at the time – to Apostle Suleman whom he regarded as his spiritual father and she told him that Suleman had been making advances at her and once invited her to Reliance Hotel, Benin, but he never regarded it as anything serious.
The aggrieved pastor said things finally began to go downhill when he was posted to Osun State in 2010 shortly after the birth of their daughter, Michelle, in November 2009 and Apostle Suleman, who was setting up a gospel television station, said he needed the assistance of his wife who was an employee of NTA.
According to him, it was during the visits to Apostle Suleman that he eventually slept with his wife in the presence of their child.
“My wife was a staffer with NTA Iruekpen, so Apostle Suleman reached out to her that they will need her to build Celebration TV and Rhema for Living. She would have to shuttle between Osun State and Auchi.
“She came back from Auchi to Osun State and said she wanted to talk to me that her conscience was pricking her. I asked what was it and she said that while in Auchi, Apostle Suleman lodged her at Uyi Grand Hotel and he came there and slept with her.
“And the moment she said that, the first thing that came to my mind was my daughter. I asked where was Michelle when this happened and she said Michelle was on the bed, pushed aside and I asked, ‘You mean you slept with a man with my daughter on the bed?
I had to let it go because there was nobody I could tell and I couldn’t fight with Apostle Suleman… I forgave her but the amorous relationship continued. One thing I know is that my wife was hypnotised. This is not the woman I got married to, who I knew for 11 years,” he alleged.
He further said that the tension between them led to his suspension from the church and his eventual exit in July 2019 which was followed by alleged threats from him. Davids added that his wife began to fight with him and left the house with their three children and relocated to Abuja.
Davids said, “Apostle Suleman has given her a branch of the church in Utako, Abuja to head without permission. I am calling on Pastor David Oyedepo, Pastor Paul Enenche, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, Pastor Margaret Idahosa, CAN, PFN.
“Apostle Suleman has damaged my life. I have not seen my wife and children for two years and Apostle Suleman says if I ever go near them, he will have me taken out. I have a video where he said he will make me disappear. I don’t want to lose my life.”
He maintained that he and his wife remained married because their marriage had not been dissolved by a competent court.
However, his wife, Pastor Faith Edeko, in a video, described her husband’s allegations as cheap blackmail, adding that it was the petitioner that abandoned the marriage and when her relatives reached out to him, he refused to return home.
She said the ordeal affected her health and she even contemplated suicide but her son stopped her.
Pastor Edeko, who wept in the video, said she never slept with Apostle Suleman, adding that she did not even have easy access to him.
She said, “There are recordings which I will upload. You told my brothers that I would crawl in the gutters. I told them not to do anything to you, that you are still the father of my kids. At some point, I contemplated suicide. I had written my suicide note, I had bought sniper because I could not fathom how I would live life in so much pain. I won’t drag you because of my children… you have done too much and it is enough. I am not hypnotised. I am not under a spell.”
She said she did not abandon her marriage. Rather, it was her husband who abandoned the family and even demanded a refund of her bride price from her family.
She said, “I don’t know what you hope to achieve, I don’t know who paid you but the only thing I will say is haven’t you done enough? Are you not tired of flogging someone’s daughter in pain?
“You left me in Kano. You called me on a certain day that you were going to leave the marriage. I thought you were bluffing. I called my people and they can testify. My elder brother called you from the UK. You told them you were leaving the marriage. My elder brother told me you were bluffing.
“I remember I begged you and then I got to the office and I collapsed, according to what my principal said because I found myself in the hospital.”
She said that no one was preventing Pastor Davids from seeing his children, adding that he lived in the same city with them but had refused to visit.
Attempts to reach Apostle Suleman proved abortive as his telephone line indicated that it was switched off. A text message was not responded to.
However, Resident Pastor, Omega Fire ministry, Headquarters, Joseph Iyare, who responded on behalf of Apostle Suleman in a terse text message, said Pastor Davids is “frustrated by his own evil deeds”.