₦airaland Forum

Catholic Priest Fathers Four Children

By Dickson Adeyanju

Religious Affairs Correspondent, The Guardian Newspaper

CATHOLIC priests are celibates. But once in a while, there are hushed rumours of some of them having affairs. Here in Nigeria, there is the case of one of the priest who has been confirmed as not only having an affair but has actually fathered four children.

The priest is Rev. Fr. Rufus Pariola, of the Ekiti diocese of the church.

Currently on an indefinite suspension, Father had all the children from one woman. .Although one of the children is said to have died, the other three are alive. The youngest of them is a 17-year old girl.

Father Pariola who is in his seventies may however find it difficult to return to active priesthood as he is expected to retire after attaining 75 years as stipulated by the canon law of the church.

The bishop of Ekiti diocese of the church, Most Rev. Michael Fagun who confirmed the development to The Guardian On Sunday in Ado-Ekiti, said it took him four months to investigate and establish the facts of the matter. He said celibacy is voluntary but anyone who decided to enter into it must take the vow very seriously.

He explained: "We in the Catholic Church, we have our principles of operation and the Catholic Church, right from the third century, made regulations. Those who will be leaders in the church are expected to make the sacrifice of being celibate. And so it became a law in the ninth century that any priest of the Catholic Church must be a celibate and if you are not ready to accept it, you leave it. Fr. Pariola is one of our priests, ordained and he worked in Ekiti diocese. Unfortunately, we discovered he was not following this principle and that is why we suspended him."

Also in conformity with the church’s regulations, Fr. Pariola has been moved out of his diocese to a secluded place in another diocese.

Accordingly, the bishop of Ondo diocese, Most Rev. Francis Alonge agreed to take Pariola and placed him in a preaching station in a town, aboiut 30 killometres from Akure. There, he is expected to continue his penance until the people of his diocese whom Fagun said feel scandalised, decide to accept him back.

The woman who had the children for him resides in Ibadan, while some of the children are in school in Lagos.

Fr. Pariola hails from Efon-Alaye in Ondo State.

Bishop Fagun said the church has no responsibility towards the children, saying "the children are very innocent. The parents are guilty, both father and mother. They are both criminals as far as the church is concerned and compensation or what I will say is that arrangements should be made to see that the children don’t suffer." He also described Fr. Pariola conduct as appalling.

"It was like a thunderbolt. I wasn‘t expecting it and never suspected it and he being an elder in this area, he was somebody we all looked up to. So it was devastating and no one was not shocked among us. But it was a sorry incident. Again we are all human", Fagun said even as he described the priest as a hardworking.

A priest who specialised in Canon law who spoke to The Guardian On Sunday about the incident said, no further sanction would be taking against Fr. Pariola since he is not legally married to the woman.

"When we talk of this thing is like talking of infidelity in a marriage. What sanction can really be imposed on you by your wife or your parents? Since the priest involved did not take the woman as his lawful wife, the only sanction that can be imposed on him is what he is presently facing that is, all his priestly functions are taken away from him as he undergoes the penance. He will go through it, seeking God’s face in repentance until such a time when his people in his diocese agree that his sins are over".

"You see, in our vocation, it is a very serious offence to deliberately contravene the celibacy law because you voluntarily go into it. So no matter how close you are to your bishop, it is such a serious offence, sufficient enough for him to disown him," the priest added.

http://www.nigeriamasterweb.com/nmwpg1cathpriest.html
JEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSS CCCCCCCCHRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIST! WICKED

Father Okon reacts

• She’s a cheap blackmailer

When Saturday Sun reached the priest at the centre of the storm on phone Monday (December 24), for his reaction, it was more of a combination of slapstick and a lecture.

Reporter: My name is Linus Obogo from The Sun Newspapers. Am I on to Reverend Father Patrick Okon?
Voice: Who is speaking?
Reporter: My name is Linus Obogo from The Sun newspapers.
Voice: The Sun Newspapers?
Reporter: Yes, The Sun newspapers.
Voice: Sorry, not me. What is the problem?
Reporter: I am on top of a intimacy scandal story involving you and a certain Ebere Eze.

Voice: Please this is not me. It is a wrong number, this is not him. It is a wrong number please.
Barely ten minutes afterwards, an unidentified male caller who claimed to be Okon’s younger brother called back with a withheld number. According to him, the priest was no longer using the number the reporter earlier reached the priest on. Pressed to oblige his priest brother’s current number, the male caller said he could not do that without the permission of Father Patrick Okon.

The following dialogue transpired:
Reporter: Hello (answering a call from a withheld number)
Father Okon’s brother: I am hearing you (sic), I am hearing you (sic).
Reporter: Hello, it’s a bit noisy.
Father Okon’s brother: The line is not clear, call me back (even though he was the one who called the reporter’s number). Call me back. Who (with aggression) did you say you want to speak to?
Reporter: But you called me and the number is withheld.
Father Okon’s brother: I am sorry.
In less then two minutes later, the priest’s brother called back with same number I had earlier called Okon on.
Father Okon’s brother: (barking) What is it about? What is it about?
Reporter: Could that be Reverend father Patrick Okon?
Father Okon’s brother: He is no longer using this number. He was using it before, but this is his younger brother.
Reporter: Can you oblige me his current number please?
Father Okon’s brother: Until I confirm (sic) from…, is there any problem… what is the problem?
Reporter: I want to speak with him directly.
Father Okon’s brother: What is the problem?
Reporter: if you are not Father Okon, there is no point telling you what the problem is.
Father Okon’s brother: I will speak with him first before giving you (reporter) his number.
Reporter: It is in his interest that he speaks with me.
Okon’s brother: Let me tell you something, whoever that gave you the story (even when no mention of a story was made to this brother of Okon’s), I know my brother has told me about a young girl who has been threatening and doing all sorts…, I don’t know anything about it.
And the line went dead.

Rev. Fr. Okon later called back, using the same number said to have been passed on to his sibling. And this phone dialogue ensued:
Priest: Good morning. My younger brother said you called with this number.
Reporter: Yes. Am I on to Rev. Fr. Okon now?
Priest: Who is this please?
Reporter: My name is Linus Obogo from The Sun newspapers.
Priest: Any problem?
Reporter: Please I wish to confirm if this is Reverend Father Patrick Okon.
Priest: Is there any problem?
Reporter: You called me and I have identified myself. I would rather that you also identify yourself.
Priest: You called my brother, who gave me your number. I don’t identify myself before anybody I don’t know on phone. I don’t do business on the phone. Now who am I speaking with?
Reporter: Now can I take it that I’m speaking with Reverend Father Patrick, Okon?
Priest: Mr. Linus, say what you want to say. What is the problem?
Reporter: A certain lady, by name Ebere Eze, has alleged a sexual relationship between you and her, which resulted in pregnancy and subsequent abortion. How do you react to that?
Priest: React on the phone?

And the line went dead.
The reporter called the priest again for his reaction after his initial rebuff.
Rev. Fr. Okon: For more than ten times, I have tried to meet with her, she refused adamantly (sic) to meet with me. She has threatened to blackmail me. She had asked me to pay a certain amount of money into her bank account. There is nothing she has not done to make me pay the amount. And she keeps on avoiding me. Yesterday evening (Sunday, December 23, 2007), I called her number out of good will, to say happy Christmas, and all she had to do was to insult me on phone. I just said something jokingly and she cut off the line.

Reporter: Specifically, what did you say to her to warrant her insult? (and the line went off).
The reporter again put a call to Father Okon, following his request that the reporter should get back to him

Reporter: This is Linus.
Father Okon: Yes, I’m listening to you.
Reporter: You asked me to call you back.
Father Okon: What I’m saying is that from my own knowledge of journalism, if you call somebody on the phone and the person says he cannot speak to you on the phone, it is out of respect for that person to seek to talk to that person face-to-face. It is not everybody that likes discussing this type of issue on the phone. If somebody comes making allegations against another person, the person alleging should be able to take you to the one he or she is alleging against. You understand? Please, this young girl has troubled my life for a very long time now. This issue is more like a trend. What is going on, I really don’t know. Please let her direct you to my place. You trouble me so much on the line. Let her direct you to my place. I beg you, I beg you!

Reporter: Professionally, I have tried to reach you to hear your own side of the story.
Father Okon: Linus, I am aware of that and I know that. But when you look at the story somebody gave you, and you called the person concerned and he says meet me face-to-face, you also make out time and meet the person face-to-face. The person has some guiding things about his life.
Reporter: And you suggest I call Ebere to direct me to your place?
Father Okon: Yes, call the person, in fact, you can come with her. I want you to know that I’m a trained journalist like you. I know what journalistic basics are. You understand?
Reporter: I will try and do that.

Father Okon: Please come with her so that when I’m talking, she will be there and it will bring out her weaknesses. If you want to build a story, I think that is the best way to do it.
Reporter: Thank you very much,
When Saturday Sun got across to Ebere Wednesday to be taken to Father Okon’s, even as he was not ready to volunteer his contact, she said apart from Saint Peter and Paul, Somolu, that once served as their love nest, she could not locate him anywhere else, other than on telephone. According to her, the priest’s life is one of nomadic.

With two days to the end of the year, it is left to be seen, if Reverend Father Patrick Okon will make good his declaration to renounce his celibacy and bond body and flesh to Ebere Eze.

http://nm.onlinenigeria.com/templates/default.aspx?a=11106&z=10

Reverend Father Patrick Okon IS A D-I-C-K AND A LIAR!!!!

•He promised me marriage, put me in family way and wrecked my life with abortion – Woman

People familiar with the Catholic parish of Somolu, Lagos must have one way or the other heard stories of the love affair between a smashing young Reverend Father and a fair-skinned lady. The story mostly circulates among persons or members of the church who would be ordinarily adjudged busy bodies.

And because there are always stories or rumours in every gathering of people over one issue or another, most of which sometimes get dismissed as baseless, Saturday Sun did not initially take the gist making the rounds as any serious matter.

The story always circulates in a don’t-say-I-told you manner. It took sometime to get the pieces of the matter together and roll them into a lump of substantial tale. As we caught wind of the tale from someone who had some facts to reveal, at least to the extent of naming names and dropping contacts, it was thought proper to give the link a try.

Saturday Sun in a bid to unravel the rumour spread its contacts and got the phone number of the lady in the centre of the theatre of this sour love tale. Fortunately, she rather obliged a meeting, gave some clues, though reluctantly on the first meet, and later got singing. What she said made it important to hear the priest who holds the other end of the baton, and at last a full story rolls - on how holy cassocks got soiled terribly by illicit intimacy, drugging allegation, false exchange of engagement rings and the identity suppression game that initially gave animation to this sin assembly.

…The flesh is weak
Wearied by the papal oath of celibacy, which insists on strict abstinence from intimacy and marriage, a Catholic priest, Reverend Father Patrick Okon, who allegedly yielded to things of the flesh, has found himself trapped in the whirlpool of an abortion-related web.
With the wind now taken out of the sail of his six months of sizzling romance with one Miss. Ebere Eze, who is still battling to overcome abortion complications she alleged was instigated by the priest, Father Okon is now torn between renouncing the vow he entered into with the Papacy with a view to getting his lover permanently hooked and doing all he can to keep the liaison a guided secret.

Now, an affair gone sour, Ebere, while detailing the genesis of her relationship with the priest in a heart-tugging disclosure to Saturday Sun, said she was taken in by Father Okon’s story of a victim of several wounded love affairs who needed her to mend his broken heart.
Begun somewhere at Agege, Lagos, in December 2006, Ebere told Saturday Sun that she met Father Okon at Tasty Fried Chicken (TFC) where the priest initially introduced himself as a lawyer on an attachment with Saint Kizito Catholic Church, Iju, Agege, Lagos.

Like folks of similar strokes, Okon and Ebere who had both experienced different kinds of bumps in their trajectories to finding true love soon bonded to erase the nightmare of their past.
Akin to a man long native to serving God and Mammon, Father Okon, according to Ebere, on the very first day of their encounter, lamented how a lover, he sponsored through the university ended up in the arms of his best friend, an experience he confided, left him traumatized.
Having once navigated that route herself, Ebere said she allowed her gullibility to get a better part of her. She told Saturday Sun that she had to give the “lawyer” a chance so that both could once again experiment with each other what was left of their shattered hearts.

From one declaration to another, Father Okon, Saturday Sun gathered, allegedly swore his immortal love for Ebere, which culminated in the promise of marriage and an exchange of engagement ring between Ebere and the Reverend Father, now believed to be heavily perforated by carnality.
During the flourishing period of their liaison, which peaked when Father Okon relocated to Saints Peter and Paul, Somolu, a parish, the stealthy romance, which transpired without the parish priest’s knowledge according to Ebere, usually involved her being smuggled in with the assistance of the security man at the gate.

While this practice of sneaking her into the Priory endured, Ebere said she could not understand why this was so, even as Okon had consistently said he was a lawyer and not a worker in the Lord’s vineyard.
At Saints Peter and Paul’s, Somolu, where she eventually found out that Okon was indeed a priest, contrary to his previous claim, sometime in April, Ebere said she was already pregnant for him.
Rattled by the news of her pregnancy, Ebere said the priest did everything to ensure that she aborted what he described as unwanted distraction to his spiritual calling. She disclosed to Saturday Sun that Okon even went as far as providing the money to facilitate the abortion process.

Her refusal to yield ground for fear of risking her life, Ebere said, dangerously pitched her against Okon.
But desperate to ensure that the looming scandal did not morph into an institutional humiliation, following a series of failed persuasions from the priest on his lover girl, Ebere told Saturday Sun that Okon tricked her into going out for ride with him in June 2007. And at a spot along Lagos-Ibadan expressway, just after the crusade ground, Okon, in a BMW 3 Series, pulled up at a joint, where he ordered drinks (a Star lager beer for himself and a small bottle of Guinness Stout for Ebere) for both of them. Among other reasons the priest advanced for insisting on the termination of the pregnancy, Ebere alleged, was the cost of bringing up a child.

According to her, just as she was about to take her drink, it was then the priest remembered he forgot something in the car and asked her to go get it for him. Unsuspectingly, she returned to take her drink, which she also alleged might have been laced with poison.
Ebere further alleged that after the drink, she could neither remember how she made it back with Father Okon to the Reverend fathers’ house at Saint Peter and Paul, Somolu nor how her under wear got soaked with blood. She disclosed that she woke up at about 5:pm, after several hours of unconsciousness to find herself protected with sanitary towel heavily flooded with her own blood.

Terribly weak to go back to Oshodi, where she lives with her brother, and not knowing what to tell him was responsible for her profuse bleeding, Ebere said she spent two nights in Okon’s apartment.
Devastated by what she alleged Father Okon had done to her, by discretely administering an abortion on her, Ebere said she threatened to let the world know what he had done to her. According to her, since the development, she has been experiencing an erratic menstrual flow, sometimes twice in a month or once in two months, coupled with loss of weight.

A mother of a six-year-old daughter, Ebere who hails from Nnewi, Anambra State, said she faces a rejection by her new fiancé who insisted she must be pregnant before he could say ‘yes I do’. The prospect, she lamented, is getting miserable by the minute.
Feeling used, betrayed and abandoned, part of the reason she has to go public with the priest’s carnal liaison with her, which culminated in a pregnancy and an abortion, Ebere told Saturday Sun, was her being renounced by Okon, despite the engagement ring and promise of marriage, from the priest.
Okon, Ebere further alleged, did not mince words by warning her of the mortal consequences of her action.

But unfazed by the priest’s threat to her life, Ebere, doggedly resolute to extract her pound of flesh, thereafter vowed to ensure that Father Okon, who hails from Cross River, pays the price for ruining her life and for what she also said was the priest’s act of perfidy.
In a raunchy but outrageous video recording of their sexual sin assembly made available to Saturday Sun, Ebere defended that it was her own weapon against the Catholic priest, in case he denies any lecherous liaison with her.

However, spooked by the seriousness of Ebere’s threat to spill the beans, Father Okon reportedly sought ways to pacify her by reactivating his marital vow to her. But then, Ebere had gone too far to turn back on her plans.
Part of the dummy the priest sold to Ebere, Saturday Sun gathered was his planned readiness to quit the priesthood later this year and tie up the nuptial knots with his lover girl. But Ebere said she suspected evil in Okon’s rapproachment, as Okon allegedly said he would kill her.

text messages
In several text messages to Ebere, the priest, while reaffirming his commitment to their liaison, repeatedly harped on his intention to get out of the priesthood and be part of the world.
Ironically, in some others, Father Okon, doubting that Ebere was amenable to a truce, accused her of allowing herself to be used by two of his colleagues to betray him.

Some of the texts purportedly sent to Ebere and which she forwarded to this reporter, are reproduced below:
“Ebere, it is Appiah and Fabian that paid you to betray me and you did it. How much did they give you? Can you see the prove (sic) of the love you had for me? You told me the other time you did not have the Cardinal’s number, where did you get this from? All I want is peace, once more, I am sorry for the pain I caused you”.
“Let us meet and talk. Friends do have misunderstanding. I am in love with you. Don’t let anyone separate us. When can we see? I am sorry for hurting you”.
“I left the Church (Saint Peter and Paul) since June. I work in a school (Missionary Society of Saint Paul, Iperu-Remo, Ogun State). So you have to arrange for another place where we can meet during the week”.

“Come to Sagamu. I am at RSS Sagamu. When you get to the park, I will pick you up”.
“Eby, if it is marriage you want, let us meet and talk. I may leave my job before end of the year”.
“Have you ever offended God and asked Him to forgive you? That is what I am asking of you. I may leave my ministry soon and I need you with me”.
“Please don’t sleep with anybody. I can’t cope without you. Please forgive. I will start taking good care of you please”.

Fr. Patrick as lawyer
I met Reverend Father Patrick Okon sometime in the evening of December last year (2006) at Tasty Fried Chicken (TFC), Agege. He walked up to me at the counter where I was ordering a drink and introduced himself as a lawyer and even showed me his identity card. He said he was a solicitor to the Catholic Church. Later, we were sharing a table. The first story he told me was that he came from Abuja and he began pouring out his heart to me and how much he loved me and wanted me to go out with him. So from there we exchanged numbers, and we started dating. I never knew he was a priest.

Blast from the past
He spoke so much about his past relationships, how girls had betrayed his love and feelings for them and so on. For instance, he told me of a girl he saw through the university and after graduation, the girl started dating his own friend. These were the kind of stories he was telling me, so l had pity on him and made up my mind to give him my best. Later, he got to know about my past relationships, I told him how I had also been hurt. He said given our peculiar circumstances, we could make the best of lovers.

Promise of marriage
All these while, he never told me he was a priest. From then on, he started working my phone to a breaking point with his calls. he would call everyday to know where I was in the morning, afternoon and evening. So, l confronted him and asked why he was doing this? I told him the way he was going about this thing was not healthy.
He said he was driven by love and that he wanted to marry me. So Barrister Okon, as he said he was, got to the extent of proving his love with giving me an engagement ring, which I am still keeping up to date.

At Saint Kizito Catholic Church
One day, he invited me to a church around Iju area. He told me the Rev. Father of Saint Kizito Catholic Church, Iju, was a family friend and that he was putting up temporarily with him until he sourced his own accommodation. More than twice, I visited him there.
One day, as I was visiting, immediately he saw me, he sent a small boy to keep me in the sitting room. But later, he asked me to come to the room.
He wanted intimacy that day, but l told him that sleeping with him for the first time was not good. He said it didn’t matter, insisting that we’ve been going on for a while. But there was no intimacy that day.

Priest unveiled
Not knowing that he was on a missionary assignment to Lagos, it was when he relocated to Saint Peter and Paul, Somolu, that I started suspecting that he was a Catholic priest.
Before he told me he was moving to Somolu, l had started suspecting he was a Reverend Father through his phone. There was a day l searched his phone, but he kept denying it, saying that he was attached to the church as their lawyer, which allows him to live in reverend fathers’ house. He also said his parents were staunch Catholics. He even convinced me to leave my church, Anglican and become a Catholic, which l started considering. It was about four months (April) after l met him that I discovered that he was a priest. I opened his wardrobe one day and found some documents and his white garments. Also, in one of the days that he wanted me to terminate the pregnancy, he put me in his class and asked me to buy an exercise book for jotting. That was the first day I saw he wore his robe.

Engagement and pregnancy
With his persistence, I started withdrawing from Anglican, because he had already given me an engagement ring preparatory to a formal marriage. But later, I understood that he was a Reverend Father. By the time I knew his priesthood status, I was already pregnant for him. This was in April.
I got pregnant while preparing for my JAMB examination. So, when I knew of his identity, and confronted him with my pregnancy, he just said, ‘Well, you know, I am human, I have blood and not water running through my veins like other people’’. So, l told him about the pregnancy and what we would do about it. I told him l wanted to keep the baby but he refused.

U-turn on marriage
He sent me several text messages concerning the pregnancy. The content of the message he sent to me was all about aborting the pregnancy, which he referred to as ‘that thing in your womb’’. So, I told him that I had never had a D&C before and I could not do it. He said he would reject me if I kept the baby. He said that he would never have anything to do with me. He even threatened to kill me if I dared keep the pregnancy to scandalize him and so on. I kept my cool but still thinking of what to do.
So when I travelled to Port Harcourt, he was sending me lot of text messages which I felt very uncomfortable with. All he could say in the text messages were ‘abort the pregnancy’’. He even sent money to me to abort it, but I did not.
It was when I refused, that he asked me to come to back to Lagos that there was a doctor he will take me to.
In fact, he called me and said I should take pills. But, I told him I wanted to have the baby. But he refused and said that babies take too much money to maintain.

On abortion outing
When he found out I was not yielding to the abortion idea, he tricked me on an outing one day. That was in June. He took me to somewhere in Sagamu. The place looked like a club and they play golf there. He ordered a bottle of Star beer and he wouldn’t want me to take soft drink. He ordered a bottle (small) of small Guinness Stout for me. As soon as my drink was opened, that was when he remembered he forgot something in the car and asked me to go and get it for him. I don’t know if he put something in the drink because I slept off and didn’t know how I got back inside his car with him.

I woke-up and saw myself padded in sanitary towel flooded in my own blood. I asked him what happened he said I should not worry. He told me to calm down, let’s go home first. He wanted to drop me off at Oshodi. I said no, that I couldn’t go to my brother’s house because I couldn’t understand what was happening to me. So he dropped off and asked me to take a bike and wait for him at Saint Peter and Paul church, Somolu. I was in his place for two days. He used to prepare food for me while he was hiding me. He did not want anybody to know I was in his apartment.

After abortion
After the abortion, I started having severe stomach pains and each time I talk about those problems, he never regarded it as anything. He would always tell me that I would be well. My body started swelling and smelling from inside and outside. Then I told him I will let everyone know of it. Since then, he started calling me regularly that he wants to see me. But, I’m afraid since he had threatened to kill me if I scandalized him. Several times, he had requested to see me, but I’ve been scared.

Proposal renewed
He renewed his proposal to me after our quarrel over the abortion. He told me he may leave his job before the end of the year. Then several text messages followed suit. He has been pleading that I come to meet him for peace talk and finalization of our marriage as he promised. When I came back from the village, he called me and asked me to meet him. I told him that it wasn’t convenient for me. He said he wanted to take me out for swimming that I should come along with my friend and our swimming trunk. He continued calling me that I should come for him to take care of me. But the way he came back now and started pleading with me, something tells me he wants to kill me or harm me.

Nude video clips
After the abortion, I confronted him. He apologized for not seeking my consent before the abortion. That was when my spirit told me to record every of our dealings in case he tries to deny our affairs. I spent two days in his house and I decided to record every happening between us. It was after he removed the pregnancy and we were both sleeping unclothed. He likes being unclothed. And that was when I did the video filming. I did it for evidence sake. That was why I recorded it. After two days in his house, I told him I wanted to go, but he refused. It was after I raised alarm and started shouting “somebody help me!” that he covered my mouth with his hand, opened the door and I left.
That was on June 5, 2007. He terminated the pregnancy on June 4 because I stayed there for two days.

SOURCE = http://nm.onlinenigeria.com/templates/?a=11105

WHAT A WEB OF LIES, DECEPTION, ESCAPADES, SENSUAL & S-E-X-U-A-L O-R-G-I-E-S, P-O-R-N-O-G-R-A-P-H-Y, ABORTION = MURDER, ATTEMPTED MURDER, PROMISES AND COUNTER PROMISES, AND FINALLY AN EXCELLENT PIECE OF INVESTIVATIVE JOURNALISM. YOU MUST BE MAD TO STILL GO TO A PRIEST FOR CONFESSIONS. MY FRIEND ATTENDS PENANCE TO COMPARE NOTES, SO I'M TOLD!

EMMANUEL ONYECHE

A Catholic priest in Lagos impregnates a lady and arranges to have the baby adopted secretly in Ijebu-Ode. EMMANUEL ONYECHE examines the circumstances of the affair and how a monsignor's role has put the Catholic Church on the spot


EKENE Chukwudozie, a former Catholic, alleges the existence of a racket in the Catholic Church whereby priests sworn to the oath of celibacy engage in sex romps and arrange to have the resultant babies secretly aborted or adopted.

He has reason to. Sometime in 2003, Rev. Fr. Julius Ambrose, the parish priest of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Orile-Iganmu, Lagos, broke his oath of celibacy and allegedly impregnated Juliana Okeke (real name withheld) - the daughter of a man whose family worshipped in the parish and regarded him as a friend.

Ckukwudozie, in a petition he wrote to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons and other related Matters, said Okeke, now his wife, discovered she was pregnant shortly before she went to Gombe State for her National Youth Service. When Ambrose was told, Chukwudozie said Ambrose allegedly took Okeke to a clinic in Abuja on three occasions to abort the baby.

He said Okeke refused because she had been brought up to see abortion as a grievous sin in the sight of God. He said Okeke eventually had the baby, a boy, whom she named MacDonald Chidi, on Jan. 7, 2004.

Unable to take the baby to her home, where it is taboo to have a child out of wedlock, and having been rejected by two orphanages, which insisted on written approvals from both parents, Chukwudozie said Okeke confided in her elder sister, Uchenna, who informed Ambrose of the situation.

Ambrose acted fast. He gave Uchenna a telephone number to give to Okeke and instructed Okeke to take the baby to any place the man she calls tells her to.

Okeke called the number and was directed to bring her baby to St. Sebastian Catholic Church, Odo-Egbo, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State. Chukwudozie said she was instructed to wait on arrival at the entrance of the church's sacristy for a certain 'John,' who would take the baby from her and help her. She must be seated, she was instructed, until someone comes to her.

At the sacristy, a John never appeared. But Monsignor Sylvester Adekoya, a catholic priest of over 30 years did. Chukwudozie said Adekoya listened to her and immediately took her to a member of his parish - Dr. Mrs Elizabeth Ogunsanya - a lecturer in Guidance and Counselling in the Faculty of Education at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, who was, at the time Adekoya and Okeke met her, in a prayer session with a certain Mrs. O.B. Adebanjo with whom she runs a joint private school.

After eight hours of counselling, Chukwudozie said an unsettled and slightly fearful Okeke was made to write an undertaking in which she gave up her baby for adoption."This baby, I give up for adoption as an act of charity, forgetting that I am no longer the mother, but I will know the couple keeping the baby and will be keeping in touch without identification to the baby as the mother," Okeke wrote.

That day, the baby was handed over to the childless family of Mr. Gabriel and Mrs. Adejoke Ogunbiyi, the husband, Gabriel, being the younger brother of Ogunsanya.

Okeke said she left her full residential address, her Nnamdi Azikiwe University identity card and the original birth certificate of the child showing that he was born at Miyetti Hospital in Gombe State. She said at intervals, she visited Ijebu-Ode to see the baby.

By mid-2004, at the same period Okeke now met and married Chukwudozie, the Ogunbiyis were at the Adoption (Juvenile Court) in Ijebu-Ode processing the formal adoption of MacDonald. On Sept. 15, 2005, the court, presided over by O.O. Odubanjo, a senior magistrate Grade I, ruled and gave out MacDonald to the Ogunbiyis for adoption.

On Nov. 9, 2004, 11 months before the Sept. 15, 2005 ruling, the Ogunbiyis had rechristened the baby, giving him the name Peter Omotunmiwa Ogunbiyi and obtained for the boy, a National Population Commission birth certificate with number 457876 that had Idona-Atan in Ijebu North East Local Government Area of Ogun State as its registration centre.

Chukwudozie, infuriated and now in tandem with his wife in the fight to reclaim MacDonald, said the entire process, which led to the boy being given out in adoption, was flawed.

He said the court was deliberately misled by Adekoya, Ogunsanya and the Ogunbiyis as a result of which, he said, the court took a wrong decision.

"The entire process of the adoption leading to the Sept. 15, 2005 ruling took place without my knowledge or that of my wife though Monsignor Adekoya, Mrs. Ogunsanya and the Ogunbiyis had the full contacts of my wife as contained in the letter of undertaking she was made to write," he said.

Chukwudodie stated that on Feb. 21, 2005, nearly seven months before the Sept. 15, 2005 ruling, he and his wife visited Adekoya and that on that occasion, his wife made it clear that she wanted her baby back.

"If the monsignor is an honest man of God who truly fears God, why did he not initiate the process of withdrawing the case from the court and give the child back to my wife, who had recovered from her initial fear and confusion. At that point, it was not too late for him to take such action," he said.

Chuwudozie said Adekoya told them after they had made the demand that his wife agreeing to give them the boy was the only help they could render to her at that period of her trauma.

Among the documents presented to the court with which the court partly based its decision were: The declaration of age of the adopter (Mrs. Ogunbiyi); medical certificate of fitness of the adopter; marriage certificate of adopter; letter of consent from adopter's husband (Mr. Ogunbiyi); birth certificate of the subject (MacDonald) and the medical certificate of fitness of the subject.

Chukwudozie wondered why there was no letter of consent from his wife - the biological mother of the subject - which he said was the bedrock of any genuine, transparent and successful adoption.

In Chapter 13 of the statement in support of an Adoption order which the Ogunbiyis filled, they requested the court to dispense with the consent of the mother on the ground that she had abandoned the baby.

Chukwudozie says he suspects that the undertaking that his wife was made to write in her period of trauma was not presented to the court as consent of the biological mother because it contained his wife's contacts and would therefore puncture the claim in the application that she had abandoned the child or jeopardise what he called "the wilful fraud to perfect the adoption without the knowledge of myself and my wife."

Chukwudozie says it was for this same reason that the original birth certificate of the boy was not included among the documents presented to the court because it would raise questions of how an abandoned baby came about a birth certificate.

Realising that a claim of abandonment without evidence that the matter was reported to the police would crumble before the court, Chukwudozie said Adekoya wrote one, on May 4, 2005 - 15 months after Okeke brought MacDonald to him at St. Sebastian - and addressed it to the Divisional Police Officer of Igbeba Police Station in Ijebu-Ode.

On May 5, 2005, a day after Adekoya's letter, it was tendered in court by the Probation Officer in the welfare office at Ijebu-Ode, Mr. Sunday Adekoya. The letter was admitted and marked exhibit 'B.'

"I wish to report that we have the report from Rev. Father Adekoya of St. Sebastian Catholic Church, Ijebu-Ode about the abandonment of the subject. This is a case of adoption of MacDonald Chidi aged one year and four months, who was abandoned at St. Sebastian Catholic Church, Ijebu-Ode on Jan. 17, 2004 by his biological mother," the probation officer informed the court. Ogunsanya was listed among those present in court that day.

According to the adoption law of Ogun State 1983, the documents presented to the court by the Ogunbiyis appear to be in order. But Section 3, which deals with the kind of juveniles that the law is applicable to, gives an insight into why an abandonment story must be sold to and bought by the court before an adoption order can be granted.

The section reads, "This law applies only to the adoption of a person under the age of 17years, who is abandoned, or whose parents and other relatives are unknown or cannot be traced after due enquiry certified by a juvenile court…"

Chukwudozie said Adekoya's letter is fictitious and fraudulent and was never seen at Igbeba Police Station. But speaking to our correspondent in Ijebu-Ode, Adekoya said, "If it was forged, why would the police not complain that the letter is not true? The police didn't report. I gave the letter and they acknowledged it. There is no way that you would say it is false. If it is, the police should complain."

At Igbeba Police Station on Jan. 14, 2010 where our correspondent took the letter to establish the truth, the DPO was said not to be available. A copy of the letter was however left with a policeman named Mr. Adeyemi Olasupo for verification. He gave out a number with which he said he could be reached the next day after he had verified the authenticity of the letter. At 1.07pm the next day, Olasupo said, "No such letter was received here."

Chukwudozie alleges that Monsignor Adekoya and Ambrose engage in a joint venture 'clearing and forwarding' of babies and their vulnerable mothers and that they use the Sacristy of St. Sebastian's Catholic Cathedral as transit point and the house of Ogunsanya and Adebanjo as the terminal.

He alleges that Adekoya told him that he (Adekoya) used to go from Ijebu-Ode to Nekede in Imo State 'interchanging' babies. Adekoya refutes this allegation and says, "He just wants to take advantage of a comment I made for which I am not sorry. I told him that we want to allow children to survive and we want childless couples to be happy by adoption.

"For instance, in our cathedral here, we have such cases where we have arranged such. We went to Nekede, through normal process and adopted some children. Husband and wife are happy till today. That is an example where there is no legal tussle because we followed the normal process. He just took advantage of that comment. There is no proof that I am trafficking."

On why he appeared in a hurry to give out the child for adoption instead of keeping him temporarily till he reconciled Okeke and her parents using his office as a monsignor, Adekoya said, "She told me in confidence who got her pregnant and that is her parish priest and a friend of her family and that if the family should know that the priest did that, it would be crazy.

"I wanted to protect that so that we can save the situation. Let this child be alive and let the position of the priest be at least kept till she can sort herself out and to let her own family, including her mother who is in the hospital be helped once this child is adopted which is her will so that everybody will be happy - the child is alive, she is okay, she can marry well, her parents will not be aware, that is why I said it is okay since she has offered to give this child out for adoption and that she can come back to visit, but not as the mother. It is on that ground that I said let me do my pastoral work and I did. I was not in any hurry at all."

Adekoya admitted that Chukwudozie and his wife came to him asking that the baby be returned to them before the court judgement, but said, "With the letter of consent that she gave and all the situations she mentioned, I had to allow the process judicially to continue. Immediately after her note and I said this is what she has said, that is all. I just opted out of it. How they continued now to get all these papers was out of me. I was not part of it. I said my pastoral work stops here. Then the family continued till they got the judgement. I finished my own job and I opted out at that point."

On the forged birth certificate of the child, Adekoya said, "To start with, I did not even christen the child. It was after the adoption and the parents, under adoption, decided to have the child registered in the LGA they belong to and that is why they did that on their own. The adoptees actually told me so. They said they did that to rectify things and it was not to my knowledge."

Ogunsanya admitted not counselling Okeke on adoption, but said they told her (Okeke) that though she wanted someone to take care of her baby, the only way she could get such help was her agreeing to let such a person adopt the baby. She said she acted in good faith by insisting that Okeke should have the freedom to visit her baby at any time she wanted. She mentioned that it was Adekoya who informed them that they should follow the process of adoption.

Asked pointedly on whether she did not understand that the process of adoption required more than a letter of undertaking, she said, "That was why I said I was angry with the church because monsignor knew; he is a lawyer who read canon law. He was the one who said we should go through the adoption process. Mine was to provide the lady with emotional stability, which I did for her and I did it in good faith by insisting that she should come back to visit her baby and she came back. When I came back from abroad and met the lady and she told me about the goings-on in the court that she was kept in the dark and I was surprised. I have learnt my lesson."

Albert Fasina, the Catholic Bishop of Ijebu Ode Diocese who arranged several unsuccessful peace meetings on the issue said he was brought into the picture when the matter was already in court. Chukwudozie alleged that Fasina at a point ordered Adekoya to release the baby to him and his wife while Adekoya said no such order was given to him.

Fasina said, "Legally, I am not in a position to order. Pastorally too, I am not in a position to order. The situation surrounding the adoption was already settled before the matter was brought to me. I was not carried along from the beginning. So I looked at it with the hope that we wanted peace.

"We wanted such that they would allow sleeping dogs to lie - allow the child to remain. After some years, they can come back and begin to talk - but there was not a day I ordered that the child be returned. Legally and pastorally, I was not in a position to do that because things had got to the stage where many people had participated.

"There are documents relating to what the lady wrote. By saying do this now, I will offend either the party that had adopted the child, the police and the welfare people or even the man that was coming in to claim the child of his wife and I said legally, it is the court that will say a thing that will make everybody to be satisfied."

At the Office of Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie, a man who identified himself as his secretary said the cardinal was aware of the issue, but had delegated it to Fasina to handle.

Sources at Our Lady in Orile-Iganmu say Ambrose was transferred out of that church several years ago and that he (Ambrose) is currently serving in Kenya.

At the time Chukwudozie wrote to NAPTIP, the matter had not been conclusively adjudicated at court and that NAPTIP told him to have faith in the court.

SOURCE: http://odili.net/news/source/2010/jan/30/819.html

NA WA OH! THESE CATHOLIC PRIESTS SEF!!! CHEI

https://www.sunnewsonline.com/images/Pop%20-%2001.gif

What do you make of the 20-Year raunchy and randy liaiasons between these two fellas? Tell us! LMAO

[img]http://www.thevanguard.ca/media/photos/unis/2010/04/02/photo_653953_resize_article.jpg[/img]

Okotie will succeed Yar’Adua
By KATE NWAOGU
Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Pastor David Uchechukwu Ude, the overseer of Noble Vine Assembly (a.k.a) Nobility Chapel in Agodo Egbe, Ikotun area of Lagos State is a man of outstanding spiritual insight.

The man of God who hails from Ndeaeoh in Ani Nni Local Government Area, Enugu State, said that after his 21 days of dry fast, God gave him revelations concerning Nigerian leadership in which Rev. Chris Okotie emerged as the next president. He speaks on his revelations, ministry and vision for the country.

My ministry
My ministry started in 2003 as a new born church in the world. It started in my parlour. Because many people came, after one year, we moved to a place of destiny. Ever since then, the ministry has been growing, God has been helping us and people are daily experiencing deliverance from poverty, lack, joblessness, barrenness, sickness among others. One thing I thank God for is that he reveals things to me and whatever he reveals must surely come to pass.

The month of June
The month of June is always a special month to me. We uaually celebrate it with elaborate programmes every year. It is a period I always engage in serious prayers with dry fasting for a minimum of 21 days. It was during my prayers in 2007 that the Lord God of heaven opened my eyes to see the God-sent leader of our great country, Nigeria. This revelation gave me great excitement when I woke up because it is a complete solution to the fluctuation in our quest of building this nation. This reminds me of what the word of God says in Psalm 127: 1. “Except the Lord builds the house, they labour in vain that build it, except the Lord keeps the city, the watchman waketh but in vain”.

Nigerians should stop experimenting, harken to God and follow divine directions, so that we can get to our promised land instead of this show of shame in governance. Every good leader that rules and leads his nation well comes from God.
God oversees all the nations of the world, installs leaders and monitors them as well as punish or destroys them when they pervert His will.

What God revealed to me
I was on a 21-day fast during a programme entitled, Change in June 2007.1 was lying on the altar praying when the spirit of God took me to a very large conference hall with all the presidential aspirants from various political parties sitted round a large long table. I saw a hand holding a big envelope moving slowly from person to person until it got to Rev. Chris Okotie.

The hand stopped and moved closer to him and the man of God stretched forth his hand and collected the envelope after which he laid it on his chest and wept aloud for joy. I also wept with him for the joy was much and touching. He exclaimed loudly “Me, God, me to rule my father land? To rule my nation after all the denials?” He immediately shouted, “Praise the Lord!” but there was absolute silence. No response until he shouted for the third time to which a resounding chorus of “Hallelujah! Hallelujah!! Hallelujah!!!” echoed across the four corners of our nation.

It was then that I realized it was a revelation. Ever since, I have been telling it to my congregation and everyone that comes my way that Rev. Chris Okotie is the God sent president for this nation, Nigeria as it pleased Jehovah to reveal to his servant, which must surely come to pass.

Other past revelations
In 1999, while I was on my 40 days dry fast, the Lord came to me on the 30th day asking me to leave my house and meet him in the Assemblies of God camp along Lagos/ Ibadan Expressway. My wife was weeping as I left for the camp because of the way I was looking but God strengthened me. On the same night, I got there, the Lord said to me, “Start praying for Olusegun Obansanjo’s installation as a civilian head of state, for there are plans to assassinate him in the process.”

I tried to argue since the swearing in ceremony was to hold the next day but later I started praying for him and the burden was so heavy that I was almost suffocating. 1 had to cry to God to distribute the burden to everyone in that hostel and immediately, there was a tremendous chorus of people weeping from all over the hostel that night, praying for the nation and her soon-to-be president, Olusegun Obansanjo.
Later in 2008 God told me he is authenticating the choice of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua as incumbent president as one who would pave way for a divine successor (Rev. Chris Okotie) just like John the Baptist did for Jesus.

My appeal to Nigerians
I want to appeal to all Nigerians to lay aside all cultural, ethnic, linguistic, religious and political sentiments and support the man who God has given the mandate to change the history of Nigeria. In him lies the divine formula for our long awaited change as a nation. Therefore, I charge all Nigerians to walk out of darkness and receive the man of God, Rev. Chris Okotie, as sent to lift the nation to greater heights.
Prayer for government

My prayer for the leaders is that God will touch them to be faithful and lead with the fear of God. They should always have at the back of their minds that God allowed to be there for a purpose. Also, they should always allow justice to prevail.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/features/manpulpit/2009/june/16/manpulpit-16-06-2009-002.htm

In less than a year, this has been proven to be an utter and absolute false. Are poeple still listening to, and believing, this so called and self-styled man of God! Idiot of a man and of a followership.

[img]http://www.thevanguard.ca/media/photos/unis/2010/04/02/photo_653953_resize_article.jpg[/img]
Dolores Atwood, the Edo woman who brought to light ArchBishop Richard Burke's affairs (http://www.catholicreport.org/comments.php?cID=5650)

well done to dolores atwood

beast and wolf in shepherd's clothing

THE GENESIS:-
I am writing this note concerning the past and present conducts of ArchBishop Richard Burke S.P.S of the Arch Dioceses of Warri and Benin in Nigeria a Irish citizen. I am a 41-year-old woman who has been living in Canada since 1995 with my husband and 3 children. In 1982 as a young girl from a Muslim home I began my journey into the Catholic faith and first met Father Richard Burke a Catholic priest at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Warri Nigeria. In 1983 when I was 14 years old, I became the victim of (what I now know to be) a sexual assault. When I was 14, I was sick in the hospital with a fever and Father Burke came to visit me. When he and I were alone in my hospital room, he touched and kissed me in a very inappropriate manner. During my teenage years, I suffered through the divorce of my parents, Richard Burke was there for me and the relationship between myself and he intensified. I became so attached to Richard Burke, that there seemed to be no one else that could be a part of my life, even though I knew that he was having relations with other young Nigerian girls. During the past 25 years I did not tell anyone of our relationship, because he told me not to talk about it to anyone no matter what and also fear of the negative impacts on him and the Catholic Church. Richard Burke left Nigeria in 1989 when he was sent to New Jersey in the USA and then back to Ireland with St. Patrick’s Society. In 1993 I met my husband, who was a Canadian volunteer working in Nigeria, while I was studying at University. My husband and I were married in 1995 in Canada and have had 3 children together. From 1989 to 1995 Father Burke and I continued communications by letters. When I told him that I was planning to get married in 1994, he became upset with me and told me that I should never tell anyone about the relationship between himself and I. Richard Burke returned to Nigeria in 1996 as Bishop of Warri Diocese. From 1996 to 1998, my husband and I left Canada and worked in Thailand. In 1998 Bishop Burke and I began regular communications by phone again. In 2000 while I was expecting my second child, Bishop Burke said that he would help get my youngest sister to come to Canada for a visit. I suspected that there was something not right when things did not work out and Bishop Burke began to take a keen interest in my youngest sisters well being. Once again, our relationship intensified with frequent amorous telephone conversations. In 2005 I found out that Bishop Burke had had a sexual relationship with my youngest sister. The “friendship” between Bishop Burke and myself began to deteriorate as, once again, I started to become aware of other young girls that he was molesting. In fact, I suspect that Richard Burke has molested or sexually abused hundreds of young Nigerian girls during his time as a priest and Bishop in Nigeria. I also know that he has taped past conversations that I have had with him and have told others, including his family in Ireland as well as my husband that I am obsessed with him in order to discredit me and make me appear to be crazy. Over a year ago, following a major dispute between myself and Bishop Burke, I confessed to my husband that I had had an intimate relationship with Bishop Burke. This was the first time that I had ever told anyone of this affair. Since my confession, my husband and I have gone to marriage counseling and I have taken private counseling to deal with the stress, trauma and confusion that I have had to deal with over the past 26 years. Following my counseling sessions, I have learned that a man that I though had loved and cared for me has in fact manipulated and controlled me. I know that Richard Burke is self-serving and that he does not serve the Church. In fact the Church serves Richard Burke by providing him access to the young girls that look up to him and then become his victims of unwanted sexual advances. I believe now, that Richard Burke is a craddle-robber I have been corresponding with St. Patrick\\\'s Society since 2007 about this and have shared with them taped conversations that I had with Richard Burke in the past where he admits to having inapproprite sexual relations with young girls, married women, religious sisters and love-peddlers. I have saved notes letters and emails that Richard Burke had sent me in the past, which I have shared with those of St. Patrick\\\'s that are \\\"investigating\\\" him. I know that Richard Burke was sent for an assessment at St. Luke\\\'s in Manchester in March of this year, and that Richard Burke is continuing with his public ministry in Nigeria and is having access to young girls in Nigeria. I do not beleive that St. Patrick\\\'s Society in Kiltegan County Wicklow, Ireland has taken my complaints seriously. I do not trust them, and believe that they are trying to help Richard Burke escape prosecution and justice for the crimes he has committed.
http://www.catholicreport.org/comments.php?cID=5650

Archbishop of Benin resigns

May 31, 2010 1:46 PM | By Sapa-AFP

Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Irish prelate and archbishop of the Nigerian diocese of Benin City Richard Anthony Burke.

The resignation follows the prelate being accused of molesting a teenage girl. Burke, in a statement to the weekly Irish Catholic, voiced “deepest sorrow for my inappropriate, irresponsible and repeatedly sinful conduct,” but denied having abused a minor.
SOURCE: http://www.timeslive.co.za/africa/article479693.ece/Archbishop-of-Benin-resigns


In spite of previous debates on NL (https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-340156.0.html ), with some people claiming the innocence of Richard Anthony Burke when they neither went in and out bedrooms with him, nor stayed with him 24/7, 7-day p/week, and 367 days p/year, he has now, finally acknowledged his sinful, immoral act of sleeping-with women despite his oaths of chastity and celibacy. Should more women in Africa come out, heads would certainly start to roll, and the Catholic Church in Africa would begin to have its own share of the shameful clerical intimacy abuse and scandal rocking the Roman Catholic Church in other continents.

NIGERIAN/AFRICAN WOMEN, PLEASE COME OUT OF YOUR CLOSETS AND BLOW THE COVER OPEN. YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOOSE. IN FACT, LIKE IN USA, CANADA, EUROPE, AUSTRALIA, YOU CAN SUCCESSFULLY PROSECUTE THESE PRIESTS AND THE CHURCH, AND YOU MAY SMILE YOUR WAY TO AND FROM THE BANKS IN TERMS OF COMPENSATION AWARDS ACCRUABLE FROM SUCH PROSECUTIONS.

orgasmatic

@ ola olabiy: What's your point about "people who had trod the path he’s about to thread"? Are you saying this is grammatically wrong? Are you also claiming it's wrong to say "6-figure bucks". See me see wahala for NL OOOOO. So you wanted him/her to say 6-figures bucks?  Erelu is right, this is the mercenaries/NECO generation. LMAO.

From a rubbish dump in Lagos to London’s O2: Vocal Slender the Nigerian Slumdog Millionaire, to perform at the Cokobar Music Festival at the O2 (indigO2) on 31 May alongside Wande Coal, Bracket, JJC, Dr. Sid, DJ Zeez and many others…

Meet Eric Obuh (aka Vocal Slender) is an aspiring rap artist from Lagos, Nigeria who’s day job is to scavenge for scrap metal at a Dump.

With almost 16 million inhabitants Lagos is the second most populous city in Africa, and every day more people arrive in search of a better life (it is the seventh fastest growing city in the world). While Lagos may be Nigeria’s most prosperous city, it is a city of vast contrasts.  In areas such as Victoria Island you can find glitzy shopping centres, expensive residential properties, beach resorts, luxury hotels, banks, swanky nightclubs and so on.  The three-part BBC documentary Welcome To Lagos, produced by KEO Films, shed light on the other side of this megacity, including places such as Olusosun, a rubbish dump where about 1000 scavengers work and live.

One of these scavengers is Eric Obuh aka Vocal Slender, 28, who was followed in the first episode, broadcast by BBC 2 on 15 April. Eric who grew up on the streets is also an aspiring rap artist; he is as he puts it ”working hard to become somebody,” collecting scrap from the dump and selling it in order to make money to record and promote his music. Not an easy task because whilst Nigeria’s music industry of today is bursting with homegrown talent and the biggest stars can afford to live in luxury, the competition is immense. When he is not working and living on the dump, Eric stays in Ajegunle, Lagos’ biggest ghetto where the careers of many big names including Daddy Showkey and African China started. In Ajegunle Eric struggles to make a name for himself as Vocal Slender performing at outdoor parties and trying to promote his music.

The Independent newspaper said “watching Eric slogging his guts out as a scavenger on the Olusosun rubbish dump in order to fund his music career couldn’t be anything but inspiring.” The Times agreed saying that “the lives followed were inspirational, not least because these poorest of the poor saw only opportunity,” and they continue to say: ”Remember the name: Vocal Slender. There won’t be a story to match it on tomorrow’s Britain’s Got Talent.” The Guardian remarked that Welcome To Lagos was a “celebration of Lagosians’ resourcefulness” while the New Statesman called it ”one of the most moving, interesting and uplifting programmes in years.”

Vocal Slender’s story fascinated many viewers, including many Nigerians in the UK who were inspired and touched by him and the other people featured.  One of London’s biggest Nigerian promoters decided that he wanted to help Vocal Slender get the break he so deserved.  So he made contact with him, flew to Lagos and offered to book him for an upcoming show: the Cokobar Music Festival, to be held at London’s indigO2 on bank holiday Monday, 31 May. The event already had a star-studded line-up, and now Vocal Slender had been added to this bill as a special guest. Eric was issued his first passport, the visa was arranged, the flights booked and Eric can now look forward to this amazing opportunity.  Not only will it be his first performance abroad, he would also be sharing the stage with the highest calibre of Nigerian acts – from Lagos Wande Coal (”Bumper 2 Bumper”, “You Bad”), Dr Sid (”Something About You”), Bracket (”Yori Yori”) and DJ Zeez (”Fokasibe”), plus London-based JJC (”We Are Africans”) and Tilla Man (”Pu’Yanga”); not the sort of bill you could expect to see him on in Lagos at present.  Whilst in London a professional music video for his single “Owo Yapa” is to be shot as well, (kindly financed by Cokobar) as having a good video is paramount in Nigeria’s music industry, and it will help him establish his name when he returns to Lagos.

Right now Eric still works on the Olusosun rubbish dumb but this could be his chance to turn his dream of making it in the music industry into reality - and to become the Nigerian Slumdog Millionaire.

http://amebor.com/vocal-slender/

A man’s/woman's gift makes room for him/her and brings him/her before the great (Proverbs 18:16); Weeping may last for the night, But a shout of joy comes in the morning (Psalm 30:5).

Episcopal Church Consecrates First Openly Lesbian Bishop
By the CNN Wire Staff
May 15, 2010 -- Updated 2340 GMT (0740 HKT)

Los Angeles, California (CNN)  -- The Episcopal Church consecrated its first openly lesbian bishop Saturday in the face of objections from some conservative Anglicans.

The Rev. Mary Glasspool, 56, is a new bishop surrounded by controversy.

Conservative factions in the Anglican Communion, a 77 million-member denomination worldwide that includes the Episcopal Church, have opposed the ordination of gay bishops.

Glasspool is the first openly gay bishop in the Episcopal Church since Gene Robinson took office in New Hampshire in 2004. Episcopalians instituted a temporary ban on gay bishops after Robinson's ordination but revoked that ban last summer.

The daughter of a priest, Glasspool was one of two openly gay candidates on the slate in the Los Angeles diocese. She has said that her sexual orientation is "not an issue."

Bishop Jon Bruno of Los Angeles called Glasspool, an ordained priest for 28 years, a "highly qualified and experienced" cleric.

"She's not afraid of conflict and is a reconciler," Bruno said, according to the Episcopal Church website.

He added that Glasspool and her partner of 19 years, Becki Sander, are an example of living service and ministry.

Glasspool is the second female bishop in the 114-year history of the Los Angeles diocese, consecrated just hours after the first, the Rev. Diane Bruce, was consecrated Saturday.

Glasspool's consecration drew opposition from Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, who said Glasspool's ordination would deepen rifts in the Church.

It "raises very serious questions not just for the Episcopal Church and its place in the Anglican Communion, but for the Communion as a whole," said Rowan, according to the church's website.

The Church of Ireland also issued a strong condemnation. That church is part of the Anglican Communion in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

"We wish to express sorrow that Mary Glasspool, a person who is living in a same-sex relationship, is to be consecrated," the Church of Ireland said in a statement. "The elevation to senior church leadership of a person whose lifestyle is contrary to the will of God revealed in scripture is both wrong and disappointing."

Conservatives said the Episcopal Church was taking a provocative step that amounts to a deliberate snub to those in the church who believe homosexuality is a sin.
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/05/15/episcopal.lesbian.bishop/index.html

END========================================================================================END


When will the Nigerian Anglican Church wake up to reality, stop discriminating and start to ordain Lesbians, Gays, Bisexual and Transexual (LGBT)?

desperation: jesus for sale? i'm ashamed of nigerians like this.

It's been noted elsewhere on NL ( https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-416218.0.html ) that Winners Chapel, TREM, RCCG, Rhema Chapel, and a host of other Nigerian Pentecostal Churches have no branches in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and Iraq. The poster suggests that Nigerian Pentecostal Churches mainly operate in £, € & $ economies for financial gains, and was ready to donate half of his wage for the month of March to any Nigerian Pentecostal Church operating in these locations. Can someone prove him/her wrong? I'll be surprised if no one can prove him/her wrong by showing that there are Nigerian Pentecostal Churches operating in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and Iraq. Afterall, Jesus said go ye into the world, and not to £, € & $ economic zones only.

I am an Anglican, and would like to invite fellow Anglicans from around Nigeria and beyond to share their experiences, thoughts, aspirations and concerns (if any) about their local Anglican congregation or the global Anglican church.

I belong to a vibrant congregation with a weekly attendance of around 500 people at the main Sunday service. Early English service of Holy Eucharist is fairly traditional. The main Sunday worship (also in English) is a blend of traditional Anglican music and contemporary worship music/songs. It's neither evangelical nor high-church. I'd say it's somewhere in the middle. The congregation is vibrant and consists mainly professionals, people with young families, and retirees, who spent their youthful days building a strong foundation for the church.

rotimy:
@ POSTER,
Are you a HOMOSEXUAL?
The gays are the only ones I know that have been telling the man to shut up his big mouth!

I am HETEROSEXUAL. Your assertion that "gays are the only ones I know that have been telling the man to shut up his big mouth!" is in deed far from the truth. George Cantuar, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, sometime in 2008, around the time the Lambeth Conference was held, told Akinola to shut up his big mouth or else he'll expose him: whatever that means! Akinola had since soft-pedalled. Tom Wright, the Bishop of Durham, and one of the sharpest theological minds in the Anglican Communion, and a host of others also cautioned Akinola and other Global South leaders, albeit, not in the same tone deployed by Geroge Cantuar. So, my brother, you're, indeed, very wrong to conclude that only gays asked Akinola to shut up.

Anyway, I think your question derails the raison d'être of this thread, which is to higlight the fact that Akinola as the Primate of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) for no less than a decade (2000-2010), failed to expend the same amount of energy, time, money and all manners of resources, which he spent on anti-homosexuality campaign (which, by and large, is not a 'serious' [at least no known openly gay priest in Nigeria] internal problem in the Nigerian Anglican Church) on dealing with the problem of polygamy and henotheism (worshipping a single God/god while accepting the existence or possible existence of other deities).

NO OFFENSE MEANT, PLEASE. Because you chose to ask me whether or not I'm gay, which I've clarified, and considering that you failed to tackle the issues raised in this thread, may I ask whether or not you're a polygamist and henotheist. Or, indeed, whether or not you support these lifestyles.

@ rotimy:

I perfectly agree with you but the point 'am making is that Peter Akinola utterly failed to address the problem confronting the Church he locally leads in the process of addressing the problems of the wider church. I thought charity begins at home. If the Anglicans in the West were to probe into what's been going on in the Nigerian Anglican Church (priest and bishops misbehaving: financially [ http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2010/feb/14/national-14-02-2010-04.htm ], [ http://www.lagoswestdiocese.org/phpApp/news.php?news_id=51 ], & sexually [ http://www.wlwt.com/news/21171084/detail.html ], two examples which can only highlight the rot within the Nigerian Anglican Church) may be Akinola would have shut up his BIG mouth to address the problems not only facing the Nigerian Anglican church, but also the leadership problem we have in the political arena. A perfect example of an Anglican bishop who continues to address Nigeria's political problems, even in his old age and after his retirement, is Bishop Emmanuel Bolanle Gbonigi.

Given that a theory is "a plausible or scientifically acceptable general principle or body of principles offered to explain phenomena. In other words, it is the general or abstract principles of a body of fact, a science," creationsim cannot be adjudged, and is not, a theory. Instead, it's a religious proposition.

In the last couple of years, the Nigerian Anglican church—under the leadership of Peter Jasper Akinola, who retires this month (March 2010)—has been at the forefront of the fight against homosexuality in the worldwide Anglican Church. However, what personally amazes me is that the amount of time, energy, and resources which this guy had expended on fighting homosexuality ostensibly was never devoted to dealing with the mammoth of problems identified with the church he leads in Nigeria. I will cite two such problems.

First, occult practices amongst some Nigerian Anglicans. Some leading and influential Nigerian Anglicans (lay and ordained) are members of different cults and fraternities. As an Anglican myself, I’ve lost count of how many times—and, yes, during Akinola’s tenure—I’ve been to cemeteries for interment which takes place after funeral services in the church, only for the members and officials of different secret cults to which deceased belonged to take over from the officiating clergy. Besides, there are some Anglicans (like some Christians of some other denominations) up and down the country who are involved in fetishistic practices. How many times has Akinola spoken out to condemn this? And, can we reasonably compare his outspokenness on this matter with the way he championed the cause against homosexuality in the worldwide Anglican Communion?

Second, the practice of polygamy amongst some Nigerian Anglicans. [/i]Some Nigerian Anglican Church officials, ranging from the ordained (vicars and bishops) to the lay (church wardens, PCC members, and diocesan officials like Registrars and Chancellors) including highly influential members of the Nigerian Anglican Church are polygamists. One classic case is that of His Excellency, Senator (Chief) Evan Enwerem, former governor of Imo State, former President, Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, whose funeral “goes down as one of the most scandalous events in Nigeria in the year of our Lord, 2007” (See http://www.thesourceng.com/meridianoct15.htm). Again, how many times did Akinola speak out to condemn this? And, can we reasonably compare his outspokenness on polygamy with his bluntness on homosexuality in the worldwide Anglican Communion?

In my own humble opinion, I think, as an Anglican, that the contents of Matthew 7: 3-5—Why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbour, "Let me take the speck out of your eye,' while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbour’s eye—aptly applies to Peter Jasper Akinola. If the amount of energy, time, and resources which Abp Akinola expended on the campaign against homosexuality had been diverted to kick against the evil perpetrated and perpetuated by the Nigerian political class ([i]JUST AS ABP DESMOND TUTU RELENTLESSLY FOUGHT APARTHEID IN SOUTH AFRICA), all Nigerians should, today, be reaping the good fruits and dividends of democracy.