I am divorcing Pastor Oyakhilome Due To His Irrational Behavior And Adultery -Anita Oyakhilome
Iexclusive News Nigeria reports that the marriage dissolution of Christ Embassy Church founder Pastor Christian Oyakhilome and his wife, Rev. Anita Odegwa Oyakhilome, has reached the final stage, according to TheCable. Pastor Chris and Anita Oyakhilome are going through a divorce.
The wife is seeking a divorce due to her husband’s “irrational behavior” and “adultery.” She made other charges against the pastor that TheCable is unable to print due to legal restrictions. Attwaters Jameson Hill Solicitors, a full-service law firm with expertise in commercial law and a strong consumer focus in family, wills and estates, personal injury law, and medical negligence, filed the divorce case on Anita’s behalf on April 9, 2014 at Divorce Section A, Central Family Court, First Avenue House, High Holborn, London, UK, with Suit No FD14D01650.
Efforts to reconcile the well-known couple, whose church is one of Nigeria’s largest religions.
have failed, despite the fact that it has branches all over the world. Sharon and Charlyn, their adolescent daughters, are their only children. Believers’ Love World Inc is the registered name of the Christian ministry, and Oyakhilome is the president, while his wife is the vice-president.
According to a church elder, the pastor has refuted accusations of adultery and claims that his wife was encouraged by “evil associates” who wanted to damage their home. While Anita believes she has been demoted in the church, her husband is said to have accused her of attempting to usurp power and authority from her senior ministers.
According to TheCable, the pastor has been attempting to defer divorce in the hopes that his wife will finally alter her mind. The charismatic pastor, however, was handed the decree nissi in his hotel room on a recent visit to the United Kingdom, according to TheCable. In legal terminology, decree nissi is analogous to a yellow card in a football game, which serves as a forerunner to a red card (“decree absolute”) if no fresh evidence is presented to stop proceedings.
According to church insiders, Oyakhilome had hoped for reconciliation, but when the attorneys caught him at his London hotel, he had no choice but to accept the documents. The decree absolute, which formally ends the marriage, is scheduled to be issued soon, and the specifics of the divorce will be hammered out by both parties’ lawyers.
TheCable discovered Anita Oyakhilome recently wanted to go public with the facts of her charges against the spouse, but she and the church came to an informal arrangement to put her sword away.
Oyakhilome is one of Nigeria’s wealthiest and most powerful pastors, and he and his wife co-authored the best-selling Christian daily devotional, Rhapsody of Realities. However, as the marriage became more strained, the wife began to complain to friends that her husband had ceased paying her royalties from devotional publications.
“She complained of being deliberately starved of funds, perhaps to bring her to her knees in the belief that she would eventually return to her matrimonial home and mend things,” a church member told TheCable in the UK.
One of the largest financiers of the London branch of the church that Anita leads, as well as other branches in Europe, is a wealthy Zimbabwean telecommunications businessman. When the matter reached a climax, Zimbabweans stopped paying the church, some claiming it was in solidarity with Oyakhilome, a close friend and neighbor in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Despite her alleged lack of financial resources, Oyakhilome was said to be taken aback when the wife revealed at a fundraiser that she was spreading a “seed” (gift) of $1 million.
On July 13, 2014, some Anita’s family shut up the London branch of the church to protest the “humiliation” they were receiving from their sister, who had not overseen services at the branch since November 2013.
Some church members had sometime in May 10, 2014 launched facebook campaign, asking: “Where is Rev. Anita Oyakhilome?” They said Pastor Chris and Rev. Anita must unite “for the sake of the gospel, the church and their two beautiful daughters”. They quoted Malachi 2:16 in the Message Bible: “I hate divorce, says the God of Israel.” The facebook page, which has over 3,300 “likes”, was opened with a stated mission: “This is a Call to Prayer for all believers who understand God’s heart concerning marriage and a Call to Action by Pst. Chris. DoWhatYouPreach”.
Officials of the church quickly moved to deny any rift between the pastor couple. One official, Kenneth Achumasara, told the media last June: “I can tell you authoritatively that there is no issue between Pastor Chris and his wife, Anita… If you go to the UK now you will see her along with the kids. She is still with him and there is no issue between them. I have been with him for 22 years and the Pastor Chris I know cannot even utter such words as reported. He will never address such a gathering. She will be in Nigeria for a programme and I will definitely invite you to have access to her”
Last night, all attempts to contact the Lagos church were unsuccessful. Pastor Sylvester Egbodaghe, Editor-in-Chief of National Daily, the Ministry’s journal, did not respond to a request for comment.