Pastor's arrested over death of member during Deliverance | Felix Omoko Blog
Key Issues
a. Principal suspect, Pastor Mike Ola Bakare who administered liquid concoction after collecting N130,000 from victim on the run
b. Pastor Bakare sent my wife, a member of his church to buy snake head and tail—Landlord
A security source who spoke exclusively to Vanguard on condition of anonymity said: “On the 13th of November, 2016, Confidence Chukwudi, the elder sister to the deceased reported to the police that on the 12th of November, 2016, her younger sister,
Chiwendu Chukwudi aged 27 years went to Jesus Solution Ministry for deliverance where the Pastor, now at large allegedly collected the sum of N130,000.00 from her, after which he administered a liquid substance on her and she started vomiting.
According to the source, the pastor allegedly “kept her in the church premises throughout the day until she became unconscious before she was taken to hospital in Okokomaiko where she was confirmed dead.”
The source further revealed to Saturday Vanguard that, when security operatives stormed the scene of the incident, the unidentified liquid substance and some charms, were recovered in the church during the search before taking her corpse to Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, Ikeja for autopsy.
How I met Pastor Bakare – Landlord
When Vanguard visited the church in an uncompleted building, it was discovered that all the doors and windows were sealed up with planks by the landlord, Mr Charles Gomah who said he was a Clearing and Forwarding Agent and an indigene of Plateau State. Contacted for comment, Gomah said:
“One day, a man came to me and said his name is Prophet Mike Ola Bakare and that, he would like to use my warehouse for a five-day crusade and I said okay, even if he doesn’t have money since he was speaking Hausa let him use it. “You know those of us from the Northern part of Nigeria living in the South here, when you hear somebody speaking your language you just take him or her as a family member. I later learnt he is from Ilesa but he claimed he was from Kaduna State and was speaking Hausa. I then told him that, I couldn’t charge him for the warehouse, so he started using the place.
After the five days crusade, when I came back from work one day, I saw different structures and electrical wiring and I confronted him that it was no longer a five day issue. He then said that he had issues where he was staying before in Ibafo and wanted to stay at the warehouse for a while. When I told him that this place you are staying is a family house, it does not even belong to me directly, so you have to pay money and he said okay he would pay.
Then he paid me N120, 000, 00 for one year. “After he did the crusade, he was no longer frequent in the house and when I asked one of his members if the pastor had got another house, I was told that he was staying in a hotel. “One day, I told one of his boys, who was his assistant to keep the place tidy but the boy broke a bottle and wanted to hit me, I then quickly picked up a cutlass but I did not strike him. When the pastor came back and I reported to him, instead of reprimanding the boy, he went and invited the police to harass me. But when I narrated the story to the police at Bale police station, I was advised to stay away from them.
He once threatened me with madness—Gomah
“One night he went to number 15 on this street with his boys armed with cutlasses to fight somebody there and I said you call yourself a man of God, why all these?
But he said he has money, and I told him that when his rent expired I would not collect from him again but he rather threatened me with madness amongst others. When he approached me that his rent just expired, I told him I don’t want him here again and would give him a quit notice I had already told my lawyer.
Prophet Bakare jump through the window and escaped “One Sunday morning between 8:00 am and 10: 00 am, I saw him making a call with one man in handcuff, whom I suspected to be a policeman so, I left them to go and buy something. When I came back, I did not see him and those men there. It was later when I was about to sleep that policemen came and started arresting people.
I learnt that Prophet Bakare jumped through the window and escaped through the back abandoning his members. I did not know whether he was married or not or kept his wife elsewhere. I did not know his family. When I went outside to see what was happening, I was arrested. I stayed in the station from Sunday till Wednesday evening before I was granted bail from the police station.
He once sent my wife to buy snake head and tail for him- Lanlord
“There was a time he sent my wife who was a member of his church to help him buy snake head and tail and I told my wife that such errand is dangerous and that people using snake head and tails are herbalists. She insisted that the man was a pastor but I warned her that they may even turn it on her head. “To me, I cannot say he was truly healing people. The thing looks like a drama. Sometimes I would see different kind of people and some mad people he claimed to have healed coming here.
Before, people used to come with cars but of recent before that incident happened, people had stopped coming. It was as if they knew that the prophet was not a genuine man of God and many of them stopped coming. Worshippers were singing praises and worship while there was corpse in the pastor’s office Concerning the incident that happened that led to the arrest of the members, he said:
“Actually, the victim I learnt was not worshipping there but her elder sister who brought her was worshipping there. I am not sure what brought her there but I believed it must be for miracle, because she was said to have paid a huge amount of money like N130, 000. When the girl died he allegedly took her to the hospital where it was confirmed that she died before he brought her back to the church.
“He dumped the corpse inside his office in the church; I did not know what his next agenda for that corpse was. Because when the corpse was inside the church that Sunday morning, people were coming for service and were singing praises and worshipping while there was corpse in the pastor’s office and members were not aware except his close workers who knew what was happening.
The deceased elder sister was also aware. “I believed it was the elder brother of the deceased who went and called the police because they were together with the pastor. The elder sister was the one who brought her two siblings, the brother and his deceased sister. I am not their member, all these things I am telling you are the stories I heard later on.” How my wife and five children left me because of Pastor Bakare When he first came, my wife was very close to him.
She went on evangelism with him and I warned her because she believed so much in him. At a point, she stopped washing my clothes but was washing Pastor Bakare’s clothes, she also stopped serving me food but was doing all these for the prophet.
“When she had issues with the man of God and he reported her to me, I asked her have you been sleeping with Pastor Bakare? She then became sober, she thought somebody had told me of their secret romance which I was so much sure of. Since that day, she decided to leave my house with my five children.” He explained.
She went for deliverance from painful menstruation— Victim’s sister
Meanwhile, in a telephone interview with Vanguard, the elder sister of the deceased, Confidence Chukwudi narrated her story. She said: “I went to see Pastor Bakare with my younger sister who was having painful menstruation for deliverance on Saturday evening and he gave her something to drink and she drank it.”
When we got home, she started vomiting and complaining of cough and requested for Tomtom which I provided for her but, the situation became worse.
I then decided to take her to the hospital but unfortunately, she died on the way. “I now called Pastor Bakare and told him that I did not understand what he gave to my sister, and that my sister was dead. He rushed to the hospital and took us and my late sister’s corpse in his car to the church that Sunday morning. I just asked him to wake up my sister because I don’t know what he gave to her.
I thought his prayer could raise my dead sister back to life- Victim’s Sister “I thought his prayer could work. My sister died after 9: am on Sunday, meanwhile we had gone to see the Pastor on Saturday evening when he administered the liquid substance on her.
When we got to the church that morning, the service had already started so we went straight to his office with my sister’s corpse and stated praying. “As the prayers were going on and I did not see my sister waking up, the police officer who came with us said we had to go back to the station to make a formal statement.
Myself and the officer left for the station before we came back to the church with police patrol van to affect his arrest, he had already fled. Meanwhile two of his pastors were arrested. The arrested pastors were not aware of what pastor Bakare did “The truth is that, those two pastors were not there when Pastor Bakare gave that concoction to my sister, they only came to church that Sunday morning so they were not aware of those things. I do not know whether they have been released on bail or not because since they buried my sister, I am still in my village in the East.
I would have been killed by mob if I had not escaped - Pastor Bakare
“After the incident I went to the Police station with my brother to discuss with the Divisional Police Officer, DPO, and while we were there, Pastor Bakare called me that he wanted to talk to my brother and I gave him the phone.
“According to my brother, he was pleading with him that he did not intend to kill my sister and that, he did not know the cause of my sister’s death.
My brother now asked him why he ran and did not stay to defend himself and he replied that, the residents of that area would have killed him if he had not ran away. “Up till now he had not told us the kind of drugs he gave to my sister.
I then collected the phone and told him that I don’t have time to fight him because if I start, nobody would stand by me but what I know is that, if he was responsible for my sister’s death, this will be the end of his life and he will never have peace.
Then he said, he never expected that from me and how could I have said such a thing. He said as he was no longer running his ministry his life has been shattered.
Source: Vanguard News, Felix Omoko Blog
