by Kolapo Olapoju

The ongoing divorce proceedings between founder of Believers’ Love World Inc (Christ Embassy church), Pastor Chris Oyakhilome and estranged wife, Anita Oyakhilome, had earlier in the year, witnessed a ripple effect, resulting in the sack of a pastor at the church’s London branch.

The crime of the Pastor, identified as Rev Grace, is because she had the audacity to constitute a prayer team to intercede with God to intervene in the marriage of the Pastor Chris and Anita, when the latter stopped coming to church services.

According to Saturday Sun, Reverend Grace is one of the pastors who worked with Rev Anita Oyakhilome at the London branch of the church.

She was reportedly sacked by Pastor Chris in May when she raised a prayer team to pray for the restoration of peace in the church’s first family when Rev Anita, the head of the London church, stopped coming in.

One of the church’s ministers revealed that the marital scandal of the Oyakhilomes had been going on behind the scenes for quite some time.

“We suspected this issue is going to go public some day since the day Pastor Chris sacked Rev Grace for meddling in his family affairs by openly calling for prayers among some members in London when Rev Anita stopped coming to the church she was shepherding while all efforts to get her failed. Some us believe our colleague in London did the right thing by seeking spiritual help for the family but I think Pastor Chris misread her intention and had to travel to London when he heard of the move to sack her and contain the spread of rumour among members in London.”

Last week, Anita Oyakhilome filed for divorce from her husband in a London law firm, after which, she released a statement insinuating that the marriage had broken down completely and there was no chance of reconciliation.

Subsquently, Pastor Chris released a statement through, Kemi Pinheiro (SAN), where he lashed out at media platforms for reporting the story, calling the reports ‘fals and fabricated’. This was after Anita’s photos and profile had been taken down from ‘Christ Embassy’s official website, a move which only further validated the belief that ‘all was not well.

Meanwhile, a female church member of a Christ Embassy branch in Abuja reportedly told Saturday Sun that the revolt of Rev Anita will be a side show compared to the exposure of certain ‘secret policy’ which has allegedly destroyed many families in the church.

“This is a strange directive that husbands and their wives must not worship or attend the same parish. Now, if a couple is a member of a parish, one of them has to be posted to another parish and this is fuelling adultery in the church in no small measure. Some of us who are female ministers that have been separated from our husbands, we are already talking. Some have started revolting against the order in their parishes while some have refused to obey such transfer orders.”

The law firm handling the case, Attwaters Jameson Hill, has revealed that Ms. Joyti Henchie, head of family law, was handling the case.

Pastor Chris and Anita Oyakhiolme have two teenage daughters, Sharon and Charlyn.

Kolapo Olapoju