The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, has ordered a probe of the General Overseer of Omega Fire Ministries International, Apostle Johnson Suleman, for allegedly sleeping with the wife of Pastor Mike Davids, threatening his life and denying him access to his children.
The
woman Apostle Suleman is accused of sleeping with is known as Pastor
Faith Edeko, who heads the Abuja branch of Omega Fire Ministries in
Utako while her husband, Pastor Davids, has left the church.
The
IGP conveyed the order in a letter addressed to the Deputy
Inspector-General of Police, Force Intelligence Bureau, Garki, dated
January 5, 2021.
The
letter, with reference number CB:7000/IGP.SEC/ABJ/Vol.515/561, was
signed by the Principal Staff Officer II to the Inspector-General of
Police, ACP Iliya Doma.
The
letter is sequel to a petition written by V.C Ezenagu & Associates
on behalf of the aggrieved Pastor Davids who accused Apostle Suleman of
threat to life and preventing him from seeing his three children.
The
police letter is titled, ‘Re: Criminal Petition Against Apostle Johnson
Suleman for Enticement of a Married Woman; Adultery; Unlawful Criminal
Restraint to Access Children and Threat to Life’.
The
letter reads in part, “I attach herewith a copy of a letter dated
December 30, 2020 with its attachments received from V.C Ezenagu &
Associates on the above underlined subject. The Inspector-General of
Police directs that you treat. Accept the assurances of my esteemed
regards please.”
In
the petition he sent to the IG, Davids said he met Apostle Suleman in
2003 while he was in school. He said they became very close and he 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.
In
three videos posted on Instagram on Sunday, the aggrieved pastor
accused Suleman of sleeping with his wife and destroying his marriage.
Davids,
who wept in the videos, said he began a relationship with his wife in
secondary school and they courted for about 11 years before marriage.
He
said in 2008 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.
The
petitioner said Apostle Suleman was setting up a gospel television
station and then said he would need the assistance of his wife who was
an employee of NTA.
He
said it was during the visits to Apostle Suleman that he eventually
slept with his wife but what made it more painful was that the act was
done in the presence of their child.
Davids
said, “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.”
Davids
said his relationship with Apostle Suleman soon turned sour and he was
suspended but after the suspension was lifted, he refused to return and
then started receiving threats from Apostle Suleman.
He
alleged that when he left the church in July 2019, his wife started to
fight with him and then his wife left the house with their three
children and they relocated to Abuja.
The
pastor said though estranged, he and his wife remain married because
their marriage has not been dissolved by a competent court.
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.”
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”.
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