Discordant Tunes After A’Ibom Prophet’s Arrest, Invasion Of Church By Police

• How He predicted Death of Gov’s Wife, Dep Gov’s Daughter
• His Latest Prediction on Nnamdi Kanu
• Police: No Report On Prophet’s Arrest

There have been conflicting accounts on the circumstances that led the invasion of the the Knowledge of God Family Church of All Nations Church in Uyo and the consequent arrest of the pastor, Victor Elijah, popularly known as Odudu 1, by policemen.

While one account stated that policemen were in the church following complaints that the pastor was into diabolic activities, using fetish items and owning a shrine, another account stated that the invasion of the church followed a disagreement between the church and its landlord, following the expiration of its rent.

TNN found out that the church had met with the landlord last year and pleaded for time to enable them sort out the rent issues and had hoped that their plea had been accepted by the landlord. The rent expired on December 31 last year.

Unknown to the church, the landlord had approached the court and obtained an order to evict the church. The order was executed on Thursday, during which time some fetish-looking items were said to have been discovered.

Some of the items on display were wooden skulls, cowries, cow horns, containers suspected to have contained powder, cream, believed to be for prayers, including some that were labelled ‘back to sender’ et cetera.

A video circulating online even showed someone with a bottle of local gin trying to pour the contents into a glass. Another picture in circulation is that of a woman carrying a glass box on her head with the image of what looked like a skull.

In the afternoon, there were speculations that the prophet had been arrested by the state government on the grounds that he was running a shrine in the name of a church. But in the evening when TNN made findings, it was found out that the pastor had been released after the police was told that the matter had to do with a tenant-landlord disagreement.

When contacted, the police image maker in the state, Timfon John however told TNN over the phone on Thursday night that there was no information before the police on the matter. She said she had made findings but got no information as to the arrest of the prophet or the invasion of his church.

One worshiper in the church who knows about the operations of the pastor and the church told TNN that “we had rent problem with the landlord’s son after the death of his father. He went to court and obtained an order to vacate us. The Church pleaded for more time and we thought he had heard, only to wake up this morning to see him bring police to destroy the church.”

When asked to speak on the whereabouts of the prophet, he said the man was in his house. But he confirmed that the prophet was earlier arrested by the police when the landlord alleged that the pastor threatened to kill him.

“The landlord said he(the prophet) threatened to kill him. So, the police arrested him. But when the truth came out that it was a court issue, he was released.”

He denied that fetish items were discovered in the church. “These are no fetish things. There are things that he uses to do spiritual works for people who visit him or the church for prayers and deliverance.

“Sometimes, he can ask people to bring some leaves, fruits, coconut, oil, shells, etc., to do assignments for them, depending on what the spirit instructs him. All the congregants are aware. And we see it every blessed day.”

“There are sometimes people are taken captives and God will instruct that the person should bring a human head, a kind of prototype.” When he was shown the carved wooden human skull that was discovered in the church, he responded thus: “This is what I’m saying now. It’s prototype.”

The controversial prophet is known to be releasing prophecies periodically. TNN learnt that the prophet had recently prophesied that the state governor, Pastor Umo Eno would lose his wife. The prophecy was said to have been released some weeks before the governor’s wife died.

Thereafter, the prophet was said to have prophesied that the deputy governor would be bereaved. It happened that not long after, the daughter of the deputy governor also passed on.

Just recently, the prophet was said to have released some more prophecies, including the one that he said a fresh calamity would befall the state government. His own was said to have come before the same prophecy that was released by a Lagos based, Akwa Ibom born prophet, Ekong Ituen.

Elijah was also said to have prophesied that the detained Biafra leader, Nnamdi Kanu would be released and that he would even become the president of Nigeria. His latest prophecy has however been described as lies by his critics.

About 8pm on Thursday, TNN called the prophet three times to hear directly from him, but he did not take the calls.