The controversial founder of Christ High Commission Church, Araromi-Ugbesi in Omuo-Oke, Ekiti State, Noah Abraham, has been re-arrested for more grievous offences.
Last year, Abraham was arrested for allegedly extorting N310,000 from church members as a ticket to heaven.
Ideally, these offences contradict the spirit and letters of Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act 2015.
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The controversial Pastor was arrested by the Ekiti State Police Command in collaboration with the National Agency for Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, for the alleged forced separation/isolation of over nine persons including minors and impregnating the wife of his choir coordinator.
It was gathered that some of the hostages were children of his members whom he had hypnotized, brainwashed and set against their parents.
Narrating their ordeal, some of the parents of the children who were kept hostage, church members and even the legal wife of Pastor Abraham, who had staged a protest to the Ekiti State Police Command pleaded with the government and appropriate authorities to assist them in getting their children, wife and relatives out of the captivity of the Pastor.
According to them, Pastor Abraham forced their children to withdraw from school while a 27-year-old man who was already working in an unnamed company where he was given an official vehicle was asked to resign and kept in the camp without a specific mission.
Speaking with journalists, the choir coordinator of the church, Mr Dare Ikuenayo confirmed that the pastor ‘’snatched and impregnated’ the mother of his three children.
“I joined the church in Kabba, Kogi State but one day, the pastor called me and notified me that my wife had a gift of prophecy that I should allow her to stay with him for a month and work for God which I obliged. But, suddenly I noticed that my wife was not even willing to see or talk to me.
While I was trying to raise eyebrows, the pastor announced in the church that he had taken my wife and no one could take her from him. I tried my best but all to no avail until he impregnated her and moved her into his house fully.”
In her testimony, the wife of the pastor, Mrs Mary Abraham said after they came together to Omuo-Ekiti for the aborted heavenly mission, her husband came in one night and asked her to move out because he wanted the wife of the choir coordinator to move in.
“He said the present work in his hand requires the woman to be with him and that was how he forced me out and denied me access to my three children. He withdrew all of my children from school, and made their lives miserable. I wept when I saw my son yesterday after the police brought him here. I am begging Nigerians to help me take my children from him.”
Similarly, one of the pastors working under Abraham, said his son, who was already working in a reputable institution was asked to resign and held hostage,’’ the Pastor said.
“Even when I lodged in complaint at the police station, I was offered access to two of my three children but on our way home he called them and asked them to run back which they did. He is always telling us that we have different curses and evil spirits working against us, he would ask us to sell our property and bring the money to him. I have invested almost N7 million in the church, I am left with nothing. Even my children don’t want to see me, I don’t know what he did to them.”
Another old woman who is the elder sister to Pastor Abraham alleged that he took almost a million naira from her on different occasions on the account that he wanted to cleanse her of evil spirits.
It was also gathered that there are many other complaints against Pastor Abraham with different stories too elaborate and sensitive for media publication.
Reacting, Pastor Abraham said the heaven ticket saga was his first assignment, saying he was done with what God had sent him to earth to do and he was ready to go back to his creator. He said he was fulfilled because he had concluded his assignments as directed by God while declining to give any reason for his actions.
Meanwhile, the wife of the coordinator whom the founder impregnated is still at large.
Confirming the incident to newsmen, the spokesman for the Ekiti State Police Command, DSP, Sunday Abutu said an investigation is ongoing in collaboration with NAPTIP.
Recall that Pastor Abraham was arrested on the 27th of April, 2022 in Omuo-Ekiti after he converged over forty persons in a camp and collected the sum of N310,000 from each of them as a ticket fee to heaven but was granted bail at a Magistrate court.
