Nollywood actor, Emeka Ike, says Chris Okotie, head pastor of Household of God Church, is not a man of God but an anti-Christ.
Ike was speaking to TheCable after learning of Okotie’s reaction to his claims that the pastor was abetting the crisis in his marriage to Suzanne Rero.
The feud between the actor and his wife had deteriorated to the point that his wife filed a divorce suit before a customary court in Lagos. Specifically, she is seeking dissolution of her 12-year-old marriage over alleged assault by her husband.
After Ike made the claim, Okotie spoke through his media aide, saying he would not “dignify Emeka Ike with a response”; and the actor has now questioned the pastor’s popularity and spiritual calling.
“I think his (Okotie’s) comment is a clear indication that he lacked the evidence to fault my allegation,” Ike said.
“Is Pastor Okotie well-known and popular as I am? How can he say he will not dignify me with a response? His comment actually confirmed my suspicion that my wife is being manipulated either through blackmail or spiritual enchantment to say she was opting out of her marriage after 12 years.
“For instance, at the last proceeding on the divorce suit, my wife said it in the open court that she was willing to abandon her four children and go out of the marriage. Which woman will say she was abandoning her four children if not under a spell? It is clear to me that Okotie is not a pastor but an anti-christ.”
He accused Okotie of hiring a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN) for his wife, just for the purpose of destroying his home.
Ike alleged that Okotie gave his wife about N500, 000 for her mother’s burial and also bought her a blackberry porch phone. He accused Okotie of calling his wife and other single women out in church every Sunday and directing that gifts should be given to them.
He further alleged that Okotie and another man in the church helped his wife to secure a job without his consent. This other man, he said, recently experienced problems in his own marriage as well, over a love message from Suzanne.
“I want people to look into this issue critically. I’ve never beaten this woman in my life. When she ran out of home, I called my pastor and they took us for counselling. For one week, I was begging her every day; I would go home alone and she would go home alone as well,” Ike added.
“At a point, pastor asked us to write five things we like and dislike about each other. The pastor said that maybe we could work it out. I wrote mine, she wrote hers and she never said there that I used to beat her. I still have that document with me. She gave me what she wrote and I gave her what I wrote.
“If I used to beat her, she could not have left it out from that then. Any man that beats a woman is a coward. I know that someone somewhere must have done something to her. How can I beat a woman I adore so much? I love my family and this is very unfortunate. Her children have been begging her to come home, and she has refused.”