Posted by By PATRICK ASONYE on
Two clerics - Apostle Sam O. Samuel and Pastor Ben - both of Zion Pillars Intercessory Ministries, Lagos, are now in soup over the death of a housewife.
Two clerics - Apostle Sam O. Samuel and Pastor Ben - both of Zion Pillars Intercessory Ministries, Lagos, are now in soup over the death of a housewife.
The woman, Mrs. Obiamaka Emenike, a mother of five, allegedly slumped while undergoing "spiritual deliverance" in their sanctuary.
The incident happened in June this year, at their Oladimeji Street, Surulere, place of worship.
Also, kid sister of the deceased, Chinelo Nwana, has joined in telling Homicide detectives what she knows about the death of the 41-year-old woman, as she was said to have witnessed the whole episode.
First investigated by Homicide detectives at Panti, Lagos, the suspects were last week transferred to Force Headquarters, Abuja, to be further grilled by officers attached to the Inspector General's Special Investigative Unit headed by a crack detective, CP Ahmed Ali.
Trouble, Sunday Sun learnt, started for the pastors June 19 when the woman reportedly "lost consciousness and collapsed" while sitting on a cushion chair at a place alleged to be the private residence of Pastor Ben.
Consequently, she was rushed to a hospital, and then another, but the medics could not revive her. She died same day in the second hospital.
According to her husband, Chief Poly I. Emenike: "My wife never regained consciousness till she died at about 7.25pm on the same day…She was neither hypertensive nor diabetic, but her sister who was with her throughout maintained to the doctors that my wife suddenly collapsed on the sofa, and nothing more."
For now, the police authorities don't seem to be impressed by their story, hence they were moved to Abuja, for further interrogation.
CP Ali told Sunday Sun on phone: "We shall get to the root of the matter, to ensure that justice is done."
He continued: "Here, we do our best; not by anybody's powers, but by the grace of God. I want to assure you that we shall do our best in this matter."
Prior to her death, the woman was said to have told her husband that she was going to the market, thus she was assigned the family driver and car, accompanied by Chinelo.
On her instruction, they reportedly changed course after answering a phone call, supposedly from one of the pastors. That was how they ended up at the Surulere place of worship. It was there that tragedy struck, details of which detectives are still trying to piece together.
Although Chinelo claims that her sister suddenly slumped while Apostle Sam was praying for her, Chief Emenike finds that storyline preposterous.
Suspecting foul play, the widower describes the storyline as "after thought developed a day after my wife's death, in connivance with Samuel and Ben."
For instance, he says Chinelo is a mole in the house, who works in concert with the detained clerics, accusing them of being fraudsters and fake.
Part of his reasons of suspecting foul play is the result of medical examination on his wife, which he said revealed "blood clot at the back of her neck, and confirmed by post mortem examination conducted at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH)."
The grieving Emenike insists that all along, and unknown to him, these clerics had been fleecing his wife of tidy sums of money under one guise or the other.
He told of the systematic scheme by which they had literally held his wife hostage: "They had in times past subjected my wife to financial pressure by scaring her with my possible sudden death and the death of our children. She, for the said reasons, continued advancing substantial amount of money to them because they know that she is placed on funds, and she controls part of my businesses."
He said he only got to know of this following some documents he stumbled on, at her demise.