A self-styled 53-year-old pastor from Nigeria who impregnated more than 20 members of his congregation, including several married women and young girls, claiming that the Holy Spirit told him to have sex with them has been arrested for sexual abuse.
Ebere Amaraizu, DSP, a spokesman for the Enugu State Police Command told NaiJ that general overseer of Vineyard Ministry of the Holy Trinity, Pastor Timothy Ngwu, was arrested for abusing his female members.
"The pastor claims to be obeying prophetic/spiritual injunction to do the will of God, which is to impregnate any one chosen and revealed by the Holy Spirit, irrespective of whether the woman is married or not," said Amaraizu.
"When the woman is delivered of the baby, the child remains in the ministry with the mother for life," he added.
According to a Vanguard report, Ngwu was reported to the police by his estranged wife, Veronica Ngwu, who got tired of his lascivious behavior after he impregnated her young niece.
A brother of the pastor, who did not want to be identified, told Vanguard that he had been warning Ngwu and his family about his behavior for a long time but he refused to listen. The arrest, he said, was God's wrath falling on his brother.
"Let me tell you, God's anger has befallen my brother, we have severally appealed to him to stop what he was doing but he refused. He has colonized our compound, bearing children with recklessness. He accused us of being jealous of him because he is doing the will of God," the brother told Vanguard.
"Look at these buildings here," he said pointing to the church compound. "He (pastor) has converted all of them to himself in the name of vineyard. I can't say exactly what informed his spirit to the devilish act in the name of God. He sacked his betrothed wife who has three children for him and embarked on impregnating married women and young girls. Look at the whole compound littered with children of different sex and age," he lamented.
"How can an educated man of his status reason like an unrefined man? All members of the vineyard are fools, how can a woman abandon her husband for another man in the name of worshiping God and practice adultery? I cannot get myself involved in this matter; Vero has opened the vessel of worms in the vineyard. Let them sort themselves out with the police but I want the ministry to be shut down completely," he added.
Ngwu told NaiJ that he has approximately five wives with 13 children along with concubines he acquired by the prophetic will of God.
He said he never had sex with any of the married women unless their husbands agreed with the request of the Holy Spirit.
Calista Omeje and Assumpta Odo, two of the women who left their husbands to live with the pastor said they did so based on the pastor's prophetic anointing.
Calista, who has 10 children with her husband, said Ngwu had impregnated her but the baby died. She also revealed that she gave her daughter to him. Odo, a mother of eight, said Ngwu impregnated her and her daughter.