Inside Rev King’s church … awaiting final judgment

■ Members upbeat, say they can’t pray for him because he’s the Christ
Seeing how members were gorgeously dressed and radiating joy, first time visitor to Christian Pray­ing Assembly (CPA), Ajao Estate, Lagos on Sun­day, December 13, would be infected with joy, and may concluded that they were the happiest people on earth. It was a day the church had its Love/Agape feast service, which holds every year. The array of automobiles of dif­ferent brands at the church premises added to the convivial atmosphere.

Since it holds once in a year, members who probably have not seen the past year, were hugging and exchanging pleas­antries after the service.
Contrary to expectation that a church whose leader has death sentence hanging on his neck should be moody, but there was no air of sobriety or apprehension at CPA over the fate of their General Overseer and founder, Rev Chukwue­meka Ezeugo aka Rev King, whom the Supreme Court had two days before, said it would early next year, deliver judg­ment on the death sentence passed on him by both the High Court and the Appeal Court.

The members seemed at peace with themselves and from their conducts, there was nothing to worry about their GO, whom they see as Jesus Christ that came for the second time. To them, it is just a travail that would take him to a higher glory.
Against the media report on December 11 that the apex court will deliver judgment on Rev King’s death sentence appeal on February 26, 2016, Saturday Sun undercover re­porter worshipped with CPA on December 13 to observe the mood of members, as their leader has a date with history.
The reporter observed that the members don’t behave as if their leader is in trouble. Throughout the service and the mar­athon prayer session, there was no time the church prayed for its GO. Instead, a message would come telling them that the GO said, so-and-so members in so-and-so branches should observe fasting and prayers for a period prescribed.

The message, taken from Joshua 12: 1- 18 and John 3: 16, which they said was prepared from Sokoto Pris­on and sent to all the branches centred on holiness and righteousness.
Some of the men still mimic his personality, especially his bears and clean-shaven head, and some still maintain King, as their surnames.
Their unparalleled loyalty of his members has faulted the law 42 of Robert Greene’s The 48 Laws of Power, says, “Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter”. In spite of his nine-year absence, the mem­bers are still swimming and sinking with him. The church is growing in leaps and bounds.
The members are not dispirited or perturbed over the or­deal of their leader; they have continued with their fellow­ships and the church growing tremendously. Those our re­porters spoke with were optimistic that the apex court will free him.

According to the minister, Chidozie King, before Rev King went to prison about nine years ago, the church had less than 60 branches, but now it has over 200 branches in different continents.
He said, the reason that the church is not even praying for Rev King is that no one can pray for God, since their leader is the Christ that has come the second time, and stressed that, as it is written, people will not recognise him.

The gathering speaks volume of his influence on the members even though not present with them.
This is more buttressed by his regular message they said he delivers to the church every Sunday and at such times, members claim that unusual miracles ranging from supernatural healings, breakthroughs, etc, take place. The message, which focused on holi­ness, purity and condemnation of adultery and fornication, could even make some of the churches that preach similar messages green with envy, more so, they seem to have penchant for mara­thon prayers.

This untainted loyalty from his members is largely because they see him as the biblical Elijah of the generation and who like Jesus Christ was punished for an offence he didn’t commit. They claim that even though he is not physically present, spiritually he is with them all the time, so his ab­sence does not make any difference.

In a chat, Chidozie King said that it was the media that condemned Rev King. According to him, journalists nev­er looked at the other side of the story to establish the truth. “For the avoidance of doubt, let me tell you the truth, saying “in his house, the generator was on, and there was very big jerry can for storing fuel, one Kossy was dispensing the fuel to smaller kegs so that it would be easy f o r these girls living with our GO to refill the generator.”
He pointed out that the girls were living in the Boys Quar­ters, only Rev King he said lived in the main building.

He said the generator went off, and Ann and the other girl who were sleeping, woke up suddenly and were going to the generator area with silk nightgowns.
“Before then, there were handbills for evangelism that were printed, because there some errors over the date, they could not be used and so were packed waiting to the be burnt that night. So, the other girl went to set the handbills on fire, while Ann rushed to the generator house and carried a small keg of fuel and was about refilling the generator that had just gone off.

“Like the effect of pouring water into a radiator of a vehi­cle that has been moving for hours, the fuel spilled all over her and as she was running out, the fire from the heap of the handbills ignited her gown already drenched with petrol. It was her shout that attracted Rev King from the main build­ing. He ordered that palm oil should be brought which was poured on her.

“Ko­ssy, who was dis­pensing fuel into small kegs, was the first to rush towards Ann for rescue but fire burnt part of his feet. Our GO drove her im­mediately to First City Hospital, Ajao Esate and deposited money for immediate treatment.”
According to him, the enemies of CPA were led by one man, who had fallen out with his wife, because he was an al­leged cultist and his wife didn’t want to follow his evil ways, but decided stick to the church that had delivered her from bondage.

Chidozie said, from that time the man left the church, he started hatching evil plot against Rev King and the church.
“He secretly started recruiting some members in the church and promised to give them N2 million each as well as send them to South Africa.
Long before the incident, one Sunday, in the course of his message, GO said, there were some people plotting evil against him and advised them not to waste their time because there is no movement they would make that he would not know.

“He asked, “Who is Ann Uzo?” Ann stood up, he laughed and said, ‘are you the one they were going to use to accom­plish the evil plot against me?’
Rev King, he said, is beyond human that is what people failed to understand.
“They were doing secret meetings against him and when this fire incident happened, they called this man that had problem with the wife and the man told them to say that it was Rev King that set them ablaze.

“The story was that he set seven people ablaze. Look at the scenario. He drenched seven able-bodied men and women with pet­rol in a compound and they were waiting for him as he climbed to his room to pick matches to light them and they didn’t run? He struck the first, which didn’t light and they were still lying down, and waiting to be roasted. They didn’t run. Even the person that was lighting them will he be saved from the fire? Do you believe that? That was what the press made the people to believe. A lot of evil things were done against GO.
“ When this incident happened, Ann asked one Otigba, who was a member of the church to come to the hospital bed and record what she was going to say before a policeman and a doctor at the hospital. Otigba took that tape to CPA office. At that time, many people were involved in this conspiracy and nobody knew where Otigba belonged and they didn’t want to listen to him. They got that tape and destroyed it.

“In that interview, Ann confessed that Rev King was not involved in what happened to her and was not even around; that he was the one that came to rescue her. Unfortunately that tape was destroyed by a member who was doubtful of Otigba’s loyalty. That tape could have saved the situation but we took it that it was like Jesus that passed through great tribulation to emerge more glori­ous. This thing that happened is for a purpose so that the whole world will hear about Rev King.
“What caused the prob­lem was that most peo­ple don’t know who Rev King is. When Jesus came and said He was the Messiah, people started hat­ing Him as they are doing to Rev King. They were look­ing for ways to nail them, and in a way to please the peo­ple, Pilate sentenced Him. Go to the Bi­ble, in the book of John 10: 30 – 33.

“Nostradamus mentioned Rev King in his prophesies, and according to Ian Wilson in the Biography of Nostradamus in Century 10, pages 72 to 74 (Century is like a chapter), it reads the year 1999, seven months, from sky will come a great king to bring back to life to the great Mongols… to reign by goodluck.
“Then in the analysis, the Nostradamus scholars said, from the sky will come a great appeaser king, and the year is 1999. He gave the prophesies about 500 years ago. We, the CPA members know that extraordinary thing happened in 1999 and exactly the seventh month was when the ministry of Rev King came into existence; CPA as a church was born in July 1999. We now match it with what the book says about the great King and ap­peaser King.

“That great King will judge the past and the present. Rev King has said he would judge the world. Luke 17: 23, says, how we know… so shall the son of man be even as it is written in Matthew that the coming of son of man shall be like somebody coming from the East to the West. This Rev King biologi­cally is from the East and came to the West, where the headquarters of CPA, the kingdom of God is. The next verse of that Luke 10: 23 says , first he shall suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. For the past nine years, he has suffered grand conspiracy. “Right in the prison, he controls spiritually everything that goes on in the universe. Even though he is not physically present with us, the church is doing very well. We just ended our Agape Feast. There was no road around Ajao. Our members from different parts of the world came down; it was a great celebra­tion.

He continues to send messages to all the branches. He is there and seeing everything. The church has not for one day prayed for him. How can you pray for God? The only thing we do is thank God for his life. Nobody has prayed for him. On the February 26, Su­preme Court judgment, Chidozie King said God knows what to do and no human being will take the glory, it is God.
Also, Emeka Dimaka King told reporter that Rev King is the Christ that has come for the second time. According to him, the church is not disturbed over the ordeal of their leader as he would come out glorious.

In the same vein, Ebere King said it was the media that condemned Rev King before the public. He is very hopeful that their leader will emerge triumphantly on February 26 next year. According to him, there were many loopholes in the judgments of both the lower and the appellant courts that would make the apex court to quash their judgment.

His ordeal began on July 26, 2006 at his residence in Ajao Estate, Lagos, when he was alleged to have set some members of his church ablaze and one of them, Ann Uzo later died in a Lagos hospital.
He was arraigned on September 26, 2006 on a six-count charge of attempted murder and murder by pouring petrol on a member of his church and five other persons and later set them on fire.
The presiding judge, Joseph Oyewole had, on January 11, 2007, passed a death sentence on him for alleged murder of a church mem­ber, Ann Uzoh, as well as the attempted mur­der of five other members of his church.

The embattled pastor, who has been in pris­on custody since then, had appealed against the death sentence, citing inconsistencies in the evidence of the prosecution’s witness.
On February 2013, Court of Appeal, sitting in Lagos, ruled that Rev King, must die by hanging.
At the sitting of the appellate court, Jus­tice Fatima Akinbami, who read a unanimous judgment of the court, dismissed Ezeugo’s appeal, stating that the prosecution had “sure­ly and effectively” proved its case against the embattled cleric at the trial court. The appeal panel dismissed the appellant’s contention that there were “contradictions and inconsist­encies” in the prosecution’s evidence.

The judge ruled: “This appeal fails and is hereby resolved against the appellant. This appeal is devoid of merit and it is hereby dis­missed. “The conviction and sentence passed on the appellant on January 7, 2011 by Justice Joseph Oyewole of the Lagos High Court, Ikeja Division is hereby affirmed”.
So, as the clock ticks for him and his fate hangs in the balance depending on the side the pendulum of judgment swings. If it swings in the right direction for him, he shouts eureka! If otherwise, he would be a guest to the hang­man as he goes to the gallows.
Source:The Sun