By Evelyn Usman

Anyone who knew Mrs Theresa Onuorah before now would be surprised at the drastic changes in her looks and financial status. She is presently a pathetic shadow of her former bubbling self. The turning point for the one-time international business woman started after her husband’s death 15 years ago. But his demise was just a tip of the ice-berg of the trauma that was to visit her. Unable to cope with the responsibility of taking care of her two children, the widow left Onitsha for Lagos to start a new life. But that turned out to be her greatest undoing as she was struck by a strange ailment which reportedly defied every medical treatment.

Mrs Theresa Onuorah — The widow and Dr. Ngozi Okoli-The Prophetess

In her bid to find a lasting solution , she was reportedly taken to God’s Covenant Ministries, located in the Ejigbo area of Lagos. Although she regained her health but the joy which this brought was cut short by another bitter episode in her life which necessitated her having to start life all over again. She was said to have given all she had laboured for with her late husband to the church at the insistence of the General Overseer, Reverend Pastor Ifeanyi and his wife, Prophetess Ngozi Okoli. She reportedly parted with everything– their only car, household property which included fans, refrigerator, iron, spoons, cooking utensils and her clothing, leaving the entire house completely empty such that she and her children had no choice but to sleep on bare floor. That was in October 2009.

However, two years down the line, the bubble burst as the deal between the parties became a subject of controversy with the widow claiming that she was hypnotized then. It all began on Sunday, April 17, 2011, when Mrs Onuorah and three other persons stormed God’s Covenant Church just as benediction was shared. Her mission? To demand for her belongings.

Narrating her ordeal to Vanguard Metro, she stated: “ I was duped of my car and other belongings in the name of prophecies. It all happened when I fell ill two years ago and was taken to the church by one Emmanuel Ike who, unknown to me, was an accomplice. I was given a mixture of some unknown substance to bath with for seven days at the end of which Prophetess Ngozi told me that my husband was a member of an occultic group and that every property he left behind was infected . She said the only way I would be well was to bring all the property to her. She told me the Lord said I should not use the property since they were obtained from occultic means and that it was affecting my health at that point in time; that if I refused I would die.

“They collected everything from me, including the spoons in the house. She said that they were her items; that the Lord said she should inherit them from me.

“Again, they asked me to hand over my husband’s landed property. I had to travel to the East then to sell our property for N2 million. They gave me an account number to pay the money into. But after selling it, I confided in my sister who slapped me and said that would help clear whatever spell was cast on me. That was how I paid the money into my account. I was warned never to tell anybody about what was going on.

“But trouble started when they realised I did not pay the money into their account. They blamed me for disclosing it to my sister. Since then I just forgot about it until I came across Reverend Mrs Oluchi Chikamnele, who runs a widow’s ministry”.

At this juncture, Reverend Chikamnele took it up from there. She explained that a woman walked up to her recently, claiming that Mrs Onuora bought some tyres from her and had not paid for years. The stranger, she added, also claimed the widow duped Pastor Ifeanyi and his Prophetess wife of an undisclosed amount.

“At this point, I became interested because Mrs Onuorah is not just a minister in my church but my Personal Assistant. Thereafter, I sent for her and asked her to tell me the truth. That was how she opened up. I honestly could not understand why a so-called pastor would behave in such manner. But for the sake of making peace and to get to the root of the matter, I called the stranger to hear more of the story. After fasting and praying over it, the next thing I did was to contact Prophetess Ngozi and her husband. But when they were not forthcoming with a reasonable explanation, I directed some of my pastors, including the widow, to go see the Pastor and his wife”.

But hell was let loose when the Police at Ejigbo division were contacted. The policemen as gathered, stormed Pastor Ifeanyi’s house. And among the things that caught the widow’s attention were the settee, her television, rug and fan. These were retrieved and immediately given back to the widow who claimed some of her belongings were still missing. For instance, she claimed that the prophetess took 10 boxes of clothes out of which ony six were recovered. She gave N568,000 as an estimate of what was still missing. The widow also noted that some of the retrieved items had suffered serious wear and tear, especially all her clothes.

But when Reverend Pastor Ifeanyi and Prophetess Ngogi were brought to the office of the Lagos State Police Command, Oduduwa, Ikeja, Prophetess Ngozi took the stage, while her husband nodded his head intermittently in acknowledgment of her claims.

Dismissing Mrs Onuorah’s claims as false, she began by saying: “I run a deliverance ministry and Sister Theresa(Mrs Onuorah) was directed to the ministry two years ago by an evangelist with us. When she came she was ill and broke down crying, as she revealed that before her husband’s demise, he belonged to a cult and that after his death, her in-laws wanted to collect all her late husband’s property because she never had any child for him. She also said her husband’s cult members were threatening to kill her. I then went on fasting and prayer for three months with her and asked her to get an olive oil with salt with which to render a prayer of purification and sanctification for three days.

“She started worshiping with us and after three months, she came to me and said she had something that belong to me with her. She then, brought out her car key and said God asked her to sow it to the church. But I told her I would need a witness before collecting it , which I did. Next time, she came again and said she was told by a man of God to give all her property obtained through occultic means to God. That was how she brought all her property”.

On the issue of the sold parcel of land, Prophetess Ngozi said the widow also told her and her husband that she had sowed the plot of land to the church. “When the church had accommodation problem we contacted her since she said she had given the property to the church, for her to sell it and for the money to be used to build the church of God. That was why we gave her the church’s account to pay the money into”.

Asked how she felt about the situation, Prophetess Ngozi gave everyone a quizzical look and said: “I feel okay because I am doing the work of God. I do not feel bad at all because of the cross I have to carry for being a servant of God. I believe what is happening here is a practical example of the Bible portion which states that kingdom does not fight against kingdom. I do not feel bad because as a servant of God whatever is given to God belongs to me. My joy, however, is that she came with an ailment and today she is healed. This is the Lord’s battle and He alone can fight it and I will never leave this cross”.

But Mrs Onuorah interjected at this point to say: “Only God knows who are truly his. All I want is my remaining property now that my senses are back”.