Prophet, wife, others die before deliverance prayers

The sleepy town of Afugiri in Umuahia North Local Government Area of Abia State has been thrown into confusion following the death of a 54-year-old blind prophet, Onyenonachi Agwu, his wife, two children and landlady.

Prophet Agwu, who was the founder and General Overseer of Faith Healing Tabernacle Ministry at Nkwoegwu, hailed from Umukabia area of Umuahia, but lived at Afugiri while his church was at Nkwoegwu.

He was believed to be full of divine powers as many people had reportedly received solutions to their problems through his prayers.

There have been different stories about what could be the cause of the deaths.

A version of the stories attributed their death to fume from a generator while another version suspected spiritual attack as the late cleric was said to have scheduled deliverance prayers for the sick children of his land lady on the night the incident occurred.

According to a family source, the deceased bodies were discovered in the morning by neighbours while their generator, which was bought about three days before the incident, was still running.

The source said that in addition human remains, two domestic fowls were also found dead at the bathroom of the four-bed room apartment.

According to the source, the corpses were found in different rooms in the four-bedroom bungalow, built recently.

The wife and daughter were found in one room, the prophet at the dining area, the landlady was found around the passage, close to the electricity generator while the three dead fowls were found around the bathroom.

There are also speculations that the deceased might have been attacked spiritually by the forces behind the sickness of the landlady’s children, who the prophet was to pray for on the night of the tragedy.

The deceased were said to have eaten rice prepared in the house that night. The family source, however, dismissed food poisoning as a possible cause of the death, but said that the result of the autopsy would reveal the actual cause of the death.

Efforts to find out from the police whether the autopsy result was out did not yield any result as the state Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Ezekiel Onyeke, did not pick several calls put across to his cell phone by our correspondent.

The family source told our correspondent, “Our major challenge now is how to raise money for the burial of the dead.”

He appealed to government for financial assistance, lamenting that the late prophet was the only surviving child of his parents.

Source:Punch