Sex On The Pulpit: Wife of Lagos pastor accuses husband of sleeping with church members

A Customary Court in Ojo area of Lagos State, was thrown into shock when the wife of the General Overseer of a church, Holy Church of God, dragged her husband to seek a divorce on the grounds of several allegations of adultery and infidelity. The woman, Glory Ibeh, had accused her husband, Pastor Amadi Ibeh, of, among other things, sleeping with many of the church's female members, battering, lack or respect and love as well as neglect of his duties as a husband and father. The petitioner told the court that the cracks in their 7-year-old marriage became expanded when she started noticing unusual closeness between her husband and some female members of the church.

"At first, I mistook their closeness for maybe follow up on deliverance or counselling.

Then I started hearing rumours of how he has been desecrating the house of God by having carnal knowledge of some of his prayer partners. I openly confronted him and he denied it vehemently."

After the first encounter, all efforts to make her husband stop unholy dalliances, she said, proved abortive as he went haywire and fell deeper into them. The actions of the man of God, Mrs Ibeh said, began having effects on the church and was at the verge of tearing the house of God apart.

She said that anytime she confronted her husband on the allegations of desecrating the house of God, she got the beatings of her life.

"I couldn’t condone it any more; it was becoming so glaring and disturbing. As a wife who cares about her husband and the welfare of the church, I asked him again if he has anything sexual relationship with some women in the church, but he descended on me and hit me mercilessly. His beatings later became constant and our marriage began to fall apart."

Since all her efforts to make her husband turn a new leaf fell on deaf ears, Gloria who claims she is a prophetess, resorted for a formal dissolution of the union to give way for peace and the separation of their ministry.

Meanwhile, when the visibly embittered man was summoned into the evidence box to either affirm or deny the allegations leveled on him, it was a twist of tale from his account.

But while in court, Pastor Amadi vehemently denied soiling his hands in any form of adultery, but maintained that his wife was badly influenced by her friends and family who kept feeding her with false news and bad advice.

"I have tried all I can to make her believe in me and concentrate on taking our ministry to greater height but she wouldn’t listen.

I thought that my wife would one day change from her awkward behaviour but to my utmost dismay, I came back from my office one fateful day to meet my house deserted. She had parked out all her belongings including mine. Varying from my money, clothes, and other accessories. And till date, she is yet to return them back to me.

I am also fed up with her behavior but I don’t want to quit the union. I believe that with God, everything is possible. I plead with the honorable court to intercede on my behalf to beg her to come back home."

After listening to both parties, the members of the court tried to mediate and broker peace between them but the woman was adamant and insisted on divorce and nothing less.

However the bride price paid on her was advised to be returned as a starting point for the divorce proceedings.