The divorce crisis between the Founder and President of the Believers Love World (aka Christ Embassy), Pastor Chris Oyakhilome and his estranged wife, Pastor Anita, has grown messier, with Anita saying that the relationship is irreconcilable. Investigation by New Telegraph has revealed that Pastor Anita has confided in her legal counsel, the United Kingdom-based law firm- Attwaters Jameson Hill Solicitors, that the relationship had degenerated beyond redemption, and that she was prepared to move on in life having filed her divorce papers. In an exclusive interview on Tuesday with the law firm’s Business Development Manager, Stephen Goddard, New Telegraph was told that the matter was presently before a competent court in the UK and that based on the instruction given by its client, the law firm would not be willing to drag the matter further in the news but to continue pursuing the case as instructed.
According to Goddard, Pastor Anita, who is presently based in the UK and Vice President of Christ Embassy, is no longer interested in the marriage and that the divorce case filed in the court was only to formally end the relationship, which had produced two daughters – Sharon and Charlyn.
In a mail forwarded to New Telegraph yesterday by Goddard, the law firm had written: “It is with great sadness that our client, Pastor Anita Oyakhilome, has come to the conclusion that her marriage to Pastor Christian Oyakhilome has irretrievably broken down and regrettably there is no hope of any reconciliation.
We can confirm that Pastor Anita Oyakhilome has commenced divorce proceedings in London as she resides in the UK.”
It would be recalled that an online news platform, TheCable, had last week broken the story of the divorce, which instantly unsettled the church with accusations and counter-accusations flying in the air. Anita had accused her husband of “adultery” and “unreasonable behaviours” as her grounds for seeking the divorce.
But in his reaction, the husband has refuted the claim, saying his wife was only being insincere and that the real cause of the disagreement was based on Anita’s quest to lord it over some church elders, which he said he refused.
Anita, through her lawyers, was said to have filed the divorce case with Suit No FD14D01650, on April 9, 2014 at Divorce Section A, Central Family Court, First Avenue House, High Holborn, London, UK.
However, members of the various branches of the church have been tasked to commit the situation to prayers with pastors giving express command to their members to seek God’s intervention in the matter as their prayer point.[eap_ad_2]
According to two members of the Ogba branch in Ikeja Area of Lagos, who simply identified themselves as Michael and Olakunle, their Zonal Pastor, Yinka Okunnusi, during the Sunday service, had charged them to pray for the overseer’s troubled family. Okunnusi had directed that: “Let everyone of us pray for our pastor and his wife that God should intervene in this present crisis they are going through.”
According to Michael, members had noticed that there was something fishy about two weeks ago when Anita, who was supposed to anchor the yearly Youth Love World Awards via projector, had been absent and was represented by “a strange lady”, who introduced herself as Ose Oyakhilome.
“I had never seen her before that day,” Michael stated. He continued: “On Saturday, news broke that Anita Oyakhilome had filed for divorce in a London court. The following day, the church deleted her pictures and other information pertaining to her from the website.
And yesterday, a church member claimed that the couple had been apart for close to 15 years.” But speaking from the altar last Sunday, Okunnusi confirmed the ongoing divorce case having been informed by the Lagos Zonal Head, who was simply identified as Pastor Lanre.
And he offered prayer which lasted for about 15 minutes before the closure of the Sunday service. “We’re not the only branch praying against this, pray that God should intervene,” Okunnusi urged.
It was also alleged that Pastor Chris had hitherto given inkling into the breakup of his marriage, when in a speech he reportedly gave on May 16, 2014, at the church branch in Bermondsey, UK, saying: “Some pastors’ wives think when they marry a pastor they are equal to the pastor.
My wife thinks so, as a matter of fact, Rev. Tom was her pastor before I married her and Rev. Ray and Evang. Owase were her leaders long before I married her.
How come she thinks she’s senior to them now?” (New Telegraph)[eap_ad_3]