by Adeola Balogun

A member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Imo has come out with an allegation to the effect that the leader of the church snatched his wife.

Charles Alozie blames Ephraim Uzodinma Okpulor, who is the President of the Anambra and Imo Conference of the church, for the breakup of his 12-year marriage after he claimed that the latter stole his wife, Chinwe.

Mrs. Alozie, a staff at the church headquarters, is said to have started the adulterous affair with Pastor Okpulor in 2011.

The Sun reports:

The distraught Alozie said the affair between his wife and the pastor has not only ruined his life but had also left him without his children as his estranged wife had absconded with his three children since July 12, 2013. This was after instigating the police to arrest him on trumped up charges.

He also accused the President of the Eastern Nigeria Union Mission, Pastor B.E.O Udoh of allegedly shielding Pastor Okpulor from being investigated for alleged adultery with his wife even when the matter had been officially communicated to him over a year ago.

Alozie who is a tricycle (Keke) operator in Owerri, and a native of Mgboko in Obingwa Council Area of Abia State, told Sunday Sun that he married Chinwe who hails from Umunama community in Ezinihitte Mbaise Council Area of Imo State on December 22, 2002. Incidentally, the president of the Imo and Anambra Conference of the church who is currently in the eye of the storm is also from Ezinihitte Mbaise, but from Akpodim community.

The embittered man said he was elated when his wife was employed in the church because he had thought that she would be safe in the house of God but regretted that now he felt betrayed by the man who is not only the chief shepherd of the churches in Imo and Anambra states but also a family friend who eats and drinks with him in his house.

He was angry that the pastor had allegedly been having an affair with his wife behind his back until God decided to expose them. He claimed that since his discovery of the alleged amorous relationship, his life had been in danger.

When I confronted my wife about her adulterous relationship with the pastor, she had begged me to forgive her and not to expose them and I agreed on the condition that she must tell Pastor Okpulor to come with his wife so that the matter would be settled since it is a family affair.

When contacted, Pastor Okpulor said that he could not comment on the matter because Deacon Alozie had not only reported the matter to the highest authority of the church in the region, but had also engaged the services of a lawyer. He said he needed the clearance of his superiors to make further comments on the issue.

However, the legal adviser of the church, Elder K. Anyanwu stated that Alozie is not a member of the church and that he is simply blackmailing the pastor because he could not handle his marital problems. Anyanwu told Sunday Sun that he had asked Mr Alozie to see him over his marital problems but that he had been dodging him and had not attended any of the meetings scheduled to settle the quarrels between him and his wife who had complained to the church that her husband had thrown her out of their matrimonial home.

“Charles Alozie is not a member of the church but has simply been blackmailing Pastor Okpulor over his inability to handle his marital problems and when his wife who works in the church reported that her husband has sent her packing from their matrimonial home, I invited him for a meeting in order to resolve the problem between him and his wife but he has been dodging me ever since and has not attended any of the meetings and as the legal adviser of the church, when a case is reported, I am instructed to handle it, but in this particular case, Alozie is not speaking the truth,” Anyanwu said.