by Oge Okonkwo

An embittered pastor’s wife, Mrs. Rebecca Bamidele, has narrated to an Ojo Customary Court in Lagos, south-west Nigeria,  how she caught  her husband, Pastor Israel Bamidele, with a female prayer partner in his bedroom overnight, an act which she said contributed to the breaking up of  their matrimonial home of 15 years.

Her husband, a school proprietor and pastor, filed a divorce petition against her accusing her of infidelity but Rebecca  brought evidence to the court saying that although her husband has accused her of infidelity,it was Bamidele who brought his prayer partners to the bedroom leading to the crash of her marriage and also the breakup of the female prayer partner’s home.the female prayer partner was also sent packing from her matrimonial home.

PM News reports:

Pastor Bamidele filed the divorce petition against his wife, claiming frequent fighting, lack of care and that he no longer loves Rebecca who bore him three children.

When asked the position of her husband’s family on the crisis that engulfed their relationship, Rebecca said she once travelled to Osun State in southwest Nigeria to meet her mother-in-law but the old woman said she should allow her husband marry another wife because her father-in-law, who is a prophet, married three wives, adding, “when I returned to Lagos, my husband quarrelled with me, saying why should I go to his homestead in Osun State to inform his mother about issues in our marriage in our Lagos home?”

Apart from the issue of hosting his prayer partner in his bedroom, Rebecca alleged that she caught the pastor sleeping with his school secretary for about a week but she could not complain because her husband would beat her silly.

She said, “Anytime I complain, my husband will say I was becoming too stubborn for him. He would say in Yoruba, ‘ila ti n ga ju onire lo’, meaning, the okro plant was becoming taller than the farmer.”

When the court asked about the role played by other pastors and elders in the crisis, Rebecca said Pastor Bamidele is the founder and general overseer of his church and the other leaders were surbordinated to him because he appointed them.

The court president, Prince Hakeem Tunde Oyekan, adjourned the matter till 27 August, 2013 for judgement.