Nigeria’s oldest Pastor, Samuel Sadela,
Indications emerged on Tuesday that the Founder
and President of the Gospel Apostolic Church, Pa
Samuel Sadela, has passed on.
He was aged 114.
Although a senior pastor in the church reportedly
claimed that the man described as one of
Nigeria’s oldest pastors could still be receiving
treatment in a hospital, he was said to have died
in the premises of the church in Lagos.
As at 9pm press time on Tuesday, an official
statement was still being awaited even as the
church was said to have opened a condolence
register for the man of God who remained
sensational even as a very old man.
Sadela was of the Apostolic stock of Christianity.
His pastoral calling started in 1928 when he
visited the famous Prophet Moses Orimolade of
the Cherubim and Seraphim Church.
When he marked his 113 birthday, the aged
pastor had expressed hope to live up to 200 years
of age.
He had said “I feel happy to be this old. Actually, I
feel like a young man. I still enjoy my meal of
Iyan (pounded yam), Eba and bush meat. I sleep
whenever I want to and wake up stronger I want
to live longer to prove to all that God remains the
same as He was in times past. If Methuselah
could live for 969 years, God can make me live
well beyond 113. If Noah could be 950, it is not
too much for Him to make me live up to 200.”
Even if that wish was not granted, Sadela left an
indelible imprint in the hearts of his members
and those who admire him.
The cleric, who claimed angels taught him to read
the Holy Bible when he was only two years of age,
raised not a few eye brows when he married a 30-
year-old woman in 2007.
“The Lord is my strength. I am very strong and
energetic,” he was quoted as saying after the
wedding in Lagos.
According to reports, he first got married in 1934,
with the marriage lasting for 21 years, but none
of the couple’s seven children reportedly lived
beyond their infancy. A second marriage, said to
have been consummated in 1965, was blessed
with four children, but only two survived. His
second wife died in 2001.
A native of Ondo State, Sadela attended St. Paul’s
Anglican Primary School, Ifon, Osun State, but
had to drop out when he travelled to Sapele, Delta
State to work as houseboy to one Captain Pullen,
a District Officer. Sadela however retraced his
steps in 1918 and completed his Standard six
education in 1920.
Meanwhile, reactions from clerics have greeted
his death. The Osun State Chairman, Christian
Association of Nigeria, Rev. Elisha Ogundiya, in a
phone interview with our correspondent,
expressed shock at Sadela’s passing.
He prayed that God, ‘will comfort his family.’
Similarly, the founder of Christ Overcomer’s
Assembly, Rev. Dipo Filani, described Sadela as a
highly respected man of God.
“He was one of the oldest pastors alive in Nigeria.
There was a time he said miracles started taking
place in his ministry when he was 90 years.
“He was a highly respected pastor. This was a
man who would mount the pulpit like a 40 year-
old. He was a living testimony of what God could
do in the lives of the faithful. I am pained because
I have not met him in person,” Filani said[b]
Nigeria’s oldest Pastor, Samuel Sadela,
Indications emerged on Tuesday that the Founder
and President of the Gospel Apostolic Church, Pa
Samuel Sadela, has passed on.
He was aged 114.
Although a senior pastor in the church reportedly
claimed that the man described as one of
Nigeria’s oldest pastors could still be receiving
treatment in a hospital, he was said to have died
in the premises of the church in Lagos.
As at 9pm press time on Tuesday, an official
statement was still being awaited even as the
church was said to have opened a condolence
register for the man of God who remained
sensational even as a very old man.
Sadela was of the Apostolic stock of Christianity.
His pastoral calling started in 1928 when he
visited the famous Prophet Moses Orimolade of
the Cherubim and Seraphim Church.
When he marked his 113 birthday, the aged
pastor had expressed hope to live up to 200 years
of age.
He had said “I feel happy to be this old. Actually, I
feel like a young man. I still enjoy my meal of
Iyan (pounded yam), Eba and bush meat. I sleep
whenever I want to and wake up stronger I want
to live longer to prove to all that God remains the
same as He was in times past. If Methuselah
could live for 969 years, God can make me live
well beyond 113. If Noah could be 950, it is not
too much for Him to make me live up to 200.”
Even if that wish was not granted, Sadela left an
indelible imprint in the hearts of his members
and those who admire him.
The cleric, who claimed angels taught him to read
the Holy Bible when he was only two years of age,
raised not a few eye brows when he married a 30-
year-old woman in 2007.
“The Lord is my strength. I am very strong and
energetic,” he was quoted as saying after the
wedding in Lagos.
According to reports, he first got married in 1934,
with the marriage lasting for 21 years, but none
of the couple’s seven children reportedly lived
beyond their infancy. A second marriage, said to
have been consummated in 1965, was blessed
with four children, but only two survived. His
second wife died in 2001.
A native of Ondo State, Sadela attended St. Paul’s
Anglican Primary School, Ifon, Osun State, but
had to drop out when he travelled to Sapele, Delta
State to work as houseboy to one Captain Pullen,
a District Officer. Sadela however retraced his
steps in 1918 and completed his Standard six
education in 1920.
Meanwhile, reactions from clerics have greeted
his death. The Osun State Chairman, Christian
Association of Nigeria, Rev. Elisha Ogundiya, in a
phone interview with our correspondent,
expressed shock at Sadela’s passing.
He prayed that God, ‘will comfort his family.’
Similarly, the founder of Christ Overcomer’s
Assembly, Rev. Dipo Filani, described Sadela as a
highly respected man of God.
“He was one of the oldest pastors alive in Nigeria.
There was a time he said miracles started taking
place in his ministry when he was 90 years.
“He was a highly respected pastor. This was a
man who would mount the pulpit like a 40 year-
old. He was a living testimony of what God could
do in the lives of the faithful. I am pained because
I have not met him in person,” Filani said[/b]
Nigeria’s oldest Pastor, Samuel Sadela,
Indications emerged on Tuesday that the Founder
and President of the Gospel Apostolic Church, Pa
Samuel Sadela, has passed on.
He was aged 114.
Although a senior pastor in the church reportedly
claimed that the man described as one of
Nigeria’s oldest pastors could still be receiving
treatment in a hospital, he was said to have died
in the premises of the church in Lagos.
As at 9pm press time on Tuesday, an official
statement was still being awaited even as the
church was said to have opened a condolence
register for the man of God who remained
sensational even as a very old man.
Sadela was of the Apostolic stock of Christianity.
His pastoral calling started in 1928 when he
visited the famous Prophet Moses Orimolade of
the Cherubim and Seraphim Church.
When he marked his 113 birthday, the aged
pastor had expressed hope to live up to 200 years
of age.
He had said “I feel happy to be this old. Actually, I
feel like a young man. I still enjoy my meal of
Iyan (pounded yam), Eba and bush meat. I sleep
whenever I want to and wake up stronger I want
to live longer to prove to all that God remains the
same as He was in times past. If Methuselah
could live for 969 years, God can make me live
well beyond 113. If Noah could be 950, it is not
too much for Him to make me live up to 200.”
Even if that wish was not granted, Sadela left an
indelible imprint in the hearts of his members
and those who admire him.
The cleric, who claimed angels taught him to read
the Holy Bible when he was only two years of age,
raised not a few eye brows when he married a 30-
year-old woman in 2007.
“The Lord is my strength. I am very strong and
energetic,” he was quoted as saying after the
wedding in Lagos.
According to reports, he first got married in 1934,
with the marriage lasting for 21 years, but none
of the couple’s seven children reportedly lived
beyond their infancy. A second marriage, said to
have been consummated in 1965, was blessed
with four children, but only two survived. His
second wife died in 2001.
A native of Ondo State, Sadela attended St. Paul’s
Anglican Primary School, Ifon, Osun State, but
had to drop out when he travelled to Sapele, Delta
State to work as houseboy to one Captain Pullen,
a District Officer. Sadela however retraced his
steps in 1918 and completed his Standard six
education in 1920.
Meanwhile, reactions from clerics have greeted
his death. The Osun State Chairman, Christian
Association of Nigeria, Rev. Elisha Ogundiya, in a
phone interview with our correspondent,
expressed shock at Sadela’s passing.
He prayed that God, ‘will comfort his family.’
Similarly, the founder of Christ Overcomer’s
Assembly, Rev. Dipo Filani, described Sadela as a
highly respected man of God.
“He was one of the oldest pastors alive in Nigeria.
There was a time he said miracles started taking
place in his ministry when he was 90 years.
“He was a highly respected pastor. This was a
man who would mount the pulpit like a 40 year-
old. He was a living testimony of what God could
do in the lives of the faithful. I am pained because
I have not met him in person,” Filani said.

RIP baba