What a series of bizarre weeks it has been for the house of the Lord! Sprouting contemporary parishes meant to cultivate the culture of Christ continues to be platforms awash with unsophisticated buffoonery and un-bear-lievable bizarreness.
From Pastor Alph Lukau “staging a poorly choreographed resurrection miracle”, to the prophet with an unprintable name, Paseka “Mb*ro” Motsoeneng, confronting Lukau to resurrect Nelson Mandela if he indeed raised Elliot, it appears that with every week comes a different mind-boggling tale from the church.
Popular Nigerian televangelist and founder of Champions Royal Assembly Prophet Joshua Iginla – who debuted in Zimbabwe last year for The Mother Of All Crusades– might be walking down the lonesome isle of reproach and suffer hurls and brickbats after he conceded to nursing a morally reprehensible act while he was married.
Addressing his mega-church on Sunday, the Abuja-based cleric popularly known as Brother Iginla, egg-facedly confessed to cheating on his wife, Yemisi.
The shocking confession was streamed live on the church’s official YouTube page, Champions TV, on Sunday and in it, Brother Iginla talked about how he and his wife were headed for divorce and have spent the past few years as a united front while fighting adultery-related battles.
The pastor said all he wants is peace of mind as his alienated wife has been blackmailing him everywhere he goes, posturing a parlous character assassination.
According to Brother Iginla, his wife was the first to cheat on him and is typical of perfidy spouses, Yemisi did not turn a new leaf, a burden Prophet Joshua has borne for the last seven years.
In what appeared like a retributive measure, the Prophet also got involved in his own extra-marital affair which culminated in a child, just as Yemisi had a child for another man while they remained married to each other.
“When my wife cheated and had an ‘unholy’ child, I covered her up but when mine happened, she started blackmailing me,” the preacher said.
The clergyman also lamented how some of his colleagues and “sons in ministry” ridiculed him and his marriage.
“This is why I urge us to pray for our leaders. It’s not easy for me to come out in public to say this, but I warned my wife, she didn’t listen rather she preferred to turn me to a laughingstock’.
I and your mother in the Lord met, and we had a wonderful marriage; before we got married, we started by checking our genotypes. She was AA, and I was AS. We had our first daughter, a wonderful child, and eventually we discovered she had sickle cell anaemia. I receive healing for people here with sickle cell and God has been doing miracles.
I saw it as a battle and a challenge for me as your father which is a trial of faith for me; it is not a problem for me. I embraced my daughter, and we had a good relationship. I may have been the first man of God to do it in this fashion but that is how I was led to do it. I want you to throw your stones at me, abuse me, insult me and I will take it but I want to stay alive, if not for you, for my destiny.
We later discovered in the course of time that she (Yemisi) was actually AS and I was AS. No problem. It was not a battle but one thing led to another. What happened was what would make a man divorce his wife scripturally and I had the backing for that. But I had to cover it up to be sure that my marriage moved with your mother and that led to so many things.”
He said because he was a man of God, he could not divorce his wife to prevent his followers from saying a man of God had parted ways with his wife.
“So, I chewed it as a pill and so this battle has become a big one which some men of God are taking advantage of, and sons who are under me, who are very bad, have fed on this battle. I have tried for seven years. She brought an unholy child into the marriage which was difficult for me to chew. I don’t want you to judge my wife or anything. I just want you to know.
We had serious battles here and there; family interventions and everything. We covered it. We would have not got to this point today if my wife had listened to me when we had the battle. I also went to have a child outside wedlock and then it became a battle in the family,” Prophet Iginla continued.
He asked his congregants to put the blame on him, saying it had become pains for me
“because when your wife begins to fight you everywhere and insult you — I have told her ‘don’t fight me, let’s solve this problem in secret and if we cannot solve it, I will come to the world, confess my sins to the world, receive the insults and end this marriage.’”
The cleric added,
“And that is what I am doing today because the battle is bad; it has pushed me to this point. I want the world to know; I want you to insult me. This battle didn’t start from Papa. I am not sleeping and then children who don’t know my story are insulting me unnecessarily. I felt I wanted to end the struggle. I want it to be in the media; insult me.
I knelt down; I begged her but she chose to make me the laughing stock before people and I said the day I come on air and say this to the people, it marks the end of our union. I covered her and I didn’t divorce her, but when mine came, she threw me to the world, calling people to send me pictures.”
Brother Iginla told his congregation that when a father had battles and challenges in life, he needed to confide in his children so that they could pray for him, adding that some children had taken advantage of his challenges and battles.
He, however, said he forgave them and had left them to God to help them not to see what he had gone through in life.
According to Iginla, although his marriage could be crashing, he is a father who loves his kids and loves everything about his family as he still takes care of them in their new American residence.
“Your mama (Yemisi) is doing well; she is in America with my children and they are doing well. You need to understand that I bought a duplex worth about $1m for them in America and they attend the best schools in America.”
Watch the video below as Pastor Joshua confesses to committing adultery
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