By SAM  ANOKAM

Since 2006 when he slipped into the consciousness of lovers of good music with his hit single, ‘Soul E Baba dey here’, he has remained an item in and out of the music industry.
At a point, it was rumoured that Soul E whose real name is Emmanuel Okose disappeared from music radar following a love -gone -sour situation with his ex, Queen Ure but the handsome dude who recently married debunked such falsehood and spoke about his music career, other issues including his new calling of a prophet.

You  remarried recently. Who is the lucky woman?

First of all, I did not remarry. This is my first marriage and it’s been beautiful. God just blessed me with a beautiful woman. She is a woman that has been tolerating me for almost seven years now. It’s been awesome. Her name is Linda Nkiruka  Soul E  Okose.

We met on Facebook. I am actually writing two books:‘How to Find Your Partner’ and ‘Dealing with Family Foundation.’ I am not really crazy about facebook, but I met her when I was in Singapore. I had problem over there.

Some people duped me of about $200,000.  Not long after, that I met her on facebook. We started talking and got connected to each other. Before I knew what was happening, today we were husband and wife.

Are you saying that your marriage with Queen Ure was not legal?

It’s just because of the love I have for you otherwise as far as I am concerned, Queen Ure is a ‘no go area’. It is something that happened before.

I have announced it and have said it a million times before that I never married Queen Ure. We were engaged. We were lovers. The same way any other young man falls in love with a lady. I don’t know why they keep talking about it?

But you lived together and started a  church?

She started a church, it was her church. Infact as we speak, the church is still in existence. I only supported her as a boyfriend or fiancé.

If you want to start a business and you have a fiancee, she will support you. Please, let me correct it here, I was never married to Queen Ure. Ure is not an issue. She said recently in an online magazine that I am not relevant. Praise God I am not relevant. I don’t hate her. She is not my enemy, I don’t hate people. Because the Bible says that he that hates his brother is a murderer.

But as far as I am concerned, she is not a case to talk about. Before people start saying Soul E married, which court did I marry? Which church married us? People should ask good questions and research. Where were the wedding pictures? I am married now and my wedding pictures are all over the internet. Where are the traditional wedding pictures? Which village did we marry? Nobody can provide all those things, so there was never a marriage.

Again, both  of you were attending Household of God…

I wasn’t attending Household of God church. All this drama was just too much. My manager, Ben Collins was attending Household of God church and he invited me to church. So once in a while, I come to Household with my manager at that time. I was going to Christ Embassy. But I love Pastor Chris Okotie because he is a teacher of the Word. You can’t take that away from him and I love him.

And I just want to use this opportunity to tell Okotie that all the things they have said I said about him by the media are  false. They are lies. I am just a victim of circumstance. And maybe I didn’t have a publicist or maybe because I refused to talk, I don’t know why I made the mistake. But just to set the record straight, I love Okotie to my heart. I don’t have anything against him.

Talking about your wife, what do you love most about her?

I love many things about her. She is a mother. She is someone that wants to see me grow in love and that is what every man needs. She is someone that doesn’t give a damn if I am Soul E. I tell people, it is not about the shape but a woman that wants to see you grow. My wife will tell me, ‘you met me in this level, in few years from now, people that have rejected you will see you in another level’. When your woman talks to you like that, you will be inspired. I am blessed to have her.

You were known as  a musician, now you are a prophet. Tell us about the transition?

This is going to be the first time I am sharing this testimony to anybody or media. Early 2008, I travelled to Singapore. It was reported all over the news that I ran away from Ure and everything, which was false. I needed to clear that too. I went on a tour and I knew I had a prophetic gift. When I was like eight years old, I will look at pregnant women and tell them how many or what gender they will give birth to.

And it will come to pass. For you to believe what I am saying, I will organise a possible interview with my dad , I will not be there, my dad will tell you what God has used this his boy to do. My dad is an evangelist.

At the train station in Singapore, a white man came to me when I was going to a show that also involved Batman Samini. We were representing Africa. I was picked from the Nigerian embassy while Samini from Ghanaian embassy. At the train station, a white man walked up to me wearing Jalamia, a Singaporean and said to me in Yoruba, ‘do you want God to turn you into a cripple Yoruba musician before you listen?

I am not a Yoruba musician, so I didn’t know who he was referring to? I was shocked to hear a Singaporean speaking Yoruba? I thought I did not hear well, I walked forward, he walked up to me and called me my name and repeated what he said. At this point, I was shaking, he added, ‘God has placed you as a prophet over nations but you are wasting your time.’ I couldn’t go for the show again. I came back to Nigeria after about a year. Of course, I did not still listen.

I relocated to Abuja where I was staying with my woman that I just got married to now. We were based in Abuja before we moved to Kaduna, then back to Abuja and to Lagos. I was in Abuja, Garki 1. One of my friends, Kelly Handsome can bear  witness to what I am about to say now.

We were together in a car with one popular real estate business woman, called Mama. She was with her bottle of Henessy and we were driving to her house because it was her birthday and artistes came. Suddenly she parked on the road and told me to come down. She dragged me to one corner and called Kelly Handsome because there were other people in the car, she didn’t want them to hear what she wanted to say. She repeated what the Singaporean said to me.

You can also ask the husband of Stephanie Okereke. I met him through Sanni Danger in early 2009. Sanni asked me to escort him to a place. We went to Transcorp Hilton and we met this Linus guy. I didn’t know him. He just started staring at me and said; ‘Man of God, why do you want God to turn you into a cripple before you listen’?

I now went on the internet and checked the Yoruba musician who is on a wheelchair. Then it dawned on me to listen. When I made up my mind, I went to Dunamis church in Abuja and laid flat on the altar and said; ‘Father I am ready’. And today by the grace of God, this prophetic ministry has taken me to 16 countries, praying and ministering to people. I am happy to announce to the world, Soul E is now a prophet of God.

That is what I do. Music will still come out this year. Beautiful soul-lifting songs but my main attention is on the ministry.

There is this belief that some prophets are only interested in taking advantage of people’s gullibility to swindle them?

In the Bible, there  were prophets of Baal and there was also Elijah. Elijah was the only true prophet. The prophets of Baal weren’t really false prophets, they were only compromised by the wealth and power of the king  and we have so many like them today in the church but because there are fake prophets doesn’t mean there are no original prophets.

Yes, it is  a general belief, not just in Nigeria but outside the shores of this country. They look at you with seven eyes. Not just prophets but pastors, bishops, men of God. They look at you suspiciously because of the disaster that is happening in the church today. The truth about it is that there are still men of God that know what they are doing.

They are still men of God that are dedicated and sincere to the work of God even though there are many prophets of Baal now. And I am one of them and maybe that is why God raised me for this generation because every generation has a prophet. And maybe that is why He allowed me to go into the world to first of all see how the world is, so I can tell people I have been there. There is nothing there.

How has your contemporaries responded to your new calling?

I don’t want to call names, but when many of them see me at the airport, they would bow their heads and say man of God bless me sir. It is a beautiful thing. You cannot work for God and lose it. It might be slow but it will surely come to pass.

Do you have a Ministry?

Yes, it is called ‘The Kingdom Builders Assembly’. It is not a church, it’s a movement. I am not interested in having a church. It is not based anywhere. We move. We storm Abuja, Port Harcourt, Lagos et al. That is what we will be doing this year. We can storm Ijesha now, then storm Ketu next week, VI and the rest. It is more of a prophetic ministry but the music is always part of it. I am a worshipper. Whether artistes are there or not, once, I tune to worship, the prophetic opens. A prophet that does not love music is not a prophet. Elijah say bring me singers. When they started singing that was when he started prophesying.

Was there a prophecy about you when growing up?

Of course yes, my dad told me that. It was not just one. Let me give you this story, I attended Amuwo Odofin Secondary school, Mile 2, you can make a research. I was the pastor of the biggest youth fellowship in that school, about 1998, 2000. They were over 3,000 students. Students were giving their lives to Jesus, demons were cast out, people were receiving healings including teachers. The day I was passing out, my principal was crying. She said she wished she could turn the hands of time.

Whenever I did something wrong and my teacher wanted to flog me, immediately she raised the cane, she would fall under anointing. When my parents came to school, they now complained that whenever they wanted to beat me, they would find themselves on the ground, my father laughed and told them that I am a prophet. They don’t beat prophets. I told you I can tell what a woman will give birth to, even till today. It is a gift.

How many of you in your family are prophets?

We are four. It will be surprising to you to know that Shayo Pisanta is my younger brother. That was the person who sang in the background in Timaya’s ‘I Don Blow.’ My brother also has his prophetic gift but he is still doing his music.

You were born in Christ as you rightly said of the exploits in secondary school but at what point did you get distracted?

I got distracted because the church did not support what I have. It is happening all over churches today. There are so many talents in the church but the churches do not support what they have. About 90 percent of musicians we have in Nigeria today  are from the church. Terry G is from the church, MI’s father is a Pastor, D’banj’s mother is a deaconess, I can start naming. We are all from the church. But the church did not support what we have. Look at what Pastor Chris Oyakhilome is doing with Frank Edwards and co, the guy is a spirit now, he is everywhere.

Look at what Paul Adefarasin is doing to Sammy Okposo? These are what pastors should do. If they do these things, we will not leave the church and go and be dancing with naked girls. Frank Edwards drives a Range Rover sport, how much do you want to pay him in your secular show? His CDs are everywhere in  Christ Embassy. If it is that one alone, he will not suffer.That was why I love Oyakhilome who even has a record label. Thumbs up for him and Dr. Paul Adefarasin of House on the Rocks church. these men are doing great, supporting the gospel people.

Sinach is constantly busy, these guys are millionaires. understand that the talent in church is important, they wouldn’t have lost anyone. somebody like Soul E to the world.