Although a high court in the United Kingdom has dissolved the marriage between funky and controversial pastor, Chris Oyakhilome, and his wife Anita, a new line of controversy has been opened between the now divorced couple.” On the whole, it was for long stretches a joyless, sexless marriage. What held it together was hope. Even hope finally gave way to a steady stream of philandering and abuse by the husband”.

Nigerian Times has exclusively gathered that Pastor Anita is seeking the services of lawyers in Nigeria to help recover several properties she had donated to the Christ Embassy church when the going was rosy between her and now ex-husband, Oyakhilome, fondly known as Pastor Chris by his followers. Pastor Chris leads the Christ Embassy Church, AKA Believers LoveWorld, while his ex-wife Anita was a senior member of the Church’s Central Executive Council, its highest-decision making body and was also in charge of the international office based in London before the trouble with her former husband began.

A Nigerian Times’ investigation reveals that Anita, who had since reverted to her maiden name Ebhodhage inherited the said property from her father, the late John Ebhodhage who was the MD/CEO of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation between 1989 and 1998. The property includes a duplex at Isolo in Lagos, an apartment at Ekpoma in Edo State, amongst others. We could not confirm if any of the property is overseas.

“She donated the property to the church believing that she was furthering the gospel and at that time truly believed in Pastor Chris, who in addition to being her husband was also her pastor,” said a close family source to Pastor Anita who has chosen to be anonymous because of the sensitive nature of the issue.

Divorce
The couple’s divorce was finalized on February 8, this year but it was after much legal drama and fireworks in the English court. The major contentions were the sharing of their mutual property as well Pastor Anita’s right to speak freely about life with her former husband, which he had challenged, wanting the court to bar her from disclosing details of the divorce and their life together. He was however willing to consider a sufficient compensation to her, if she agreed not to speak about the matter.

On the matter of compensation, we gathered that Pastor Chris declared a total sum of 120,000 USD and a house in Johannesburg, South Africa and that he was only the spiritual head of the Christ Embassy Church, not its administrative or legal head, and so its funds were communal and not personal to him. Our source, who described the claim by Pastor Chris as a blatant lie, revealed that this was particularly distressing to Anita as she had invested the better part of her life, including finances in the Christ Embassy Church. “She was particularly saddened by this claim, and had to go on vacation to Switzerland, her mother’s country, because of the stress,” he said.

That incident happened in October last year, shortly after which Pastor Chris donated the whooping sum of N1 billion to the Benson Idahosa University.

The court held in favour of Pastor Chris that the funds of the church were indeed communal and so would not be a factor in the divorce, to his great delight and the coterie of aides, hangers-on and senior pastors who accompanied him to the High Court of Justice Principal Registry of the Family Division in October 2015. So much so that it was learnt they threw a party at the Christ Embassy, Bermondsey branch to celebrate ‘the victory.’

The court however did not bar Pastor Anita from disclosing any detail of the divorce or life with her ex-husband, and we have learned reliably that she is getting prepared to write a tell-all about the misery she suffered at the hands of the so-called man of God.

What broke the camel’s back
Talking about misery, our source disclosed that the woman had a difficult and sexless marriage for much of the time they were together but bore the pains because she believed it was the necessary sacrifice for the success of their ministry. She was transferred to UK to start off the international arm of the ministry in the late 90s, when the church had a programme there and Pastor Chris asked her to stay back and kick-start the international arm of the ministry. At that point, our source said, Pastor Chris’ word was life and death to her and she considered him next to God. So in spite of family and friends who cautioned against taking up the offer and that it was not ideal leaving her relatively young marriage for an oversea country, even for the cause of the gospel, she packed her bags in obedience to her ‘man of God.’ She took their two children Charlene and Sharon along with her.

In no time, her hard-work had paid off and the international arm of the ministry was booming, with numerous churches started in the UK and mainland Europe. But this success might have invariably cost her marriage, for while she was away from Nigeria, a few women had allegedly grown close to her husband and were living in the same housing complex known as ‘White House’ as he. ‘White House’ is an exclusive multi story building at the Church’s Oregun-Lagos branch where Pastor Chris stays whenever he is in Lagos. It has several luxury apartments, a swimming pool, and open only to Pastor Chris, and his closest aides, who incidentally are beautiful but unmarried top female pastors such as Pastors Yemisi Kudehinbu, and Deola Phillips, whom his ex-wife was uncomfortable with.

With rumours swirling around town about some suspicious activities bordering on infidelity, our source said Pastor Anita insisted on returning to Lagos, to her matrimonial home, and requested the sack of the strange women – Pentecostalspeak for home breakers , around her ex-husband. The man however refused, insisting that she was more useful to the ministry in the Uk, than in Nigeria and that the women were indispensible to the growth of the Christ Embassy Church.

“What really broke the camel’s back happened after IPPC (the Church’s flagship program for its partners and pastors) in December 2013. While sleeping in their room, she woke up to discover that her ex-husband had exited the room, and locked the door behind him. She was distraught and could not fathom why he would lock her inside the room and left with the key!

“On returning, she queried him and he confessed that he had gone for a meeting in the apartment of one of the controversial women pastors around him, Yemisi Kudehinbu. This enraged the wife and she vowed to leave and never to return. She subsequently filed for divorce on returning to the UK,” our source revealed. “It wasn’t just that he was doing it; but that he couldn’t forgo that one night she had planned to spend with him in Lagos.”

The Family
The ex-couple were blessed with two children, Charlene and Sharon, both of whom were raised by their mother in the UK. That has not however made them stick with their mum in these trying times. “They both currently live with their father, and she has not seen or spoken with them in a while,” the source said, explaining further that “the man is very charismatic and can convince anyone, also I believe the children think they are better off being with their multi-billionaire dad than with their mum who is just trying to get by now.”

http://nigeriantimes.ng/news/exclusive-the-messy-details-of-pastor-chris-divorce/

Pls endeavor to use your "shift" or "space" button More frequently.

We are all human after all. Even these men of God we look up to are all human.

Best to just focus on God because if you start looking at all the things that go on in church ehnn, even my own church is not left out. It is well!

In one of Rick Joyner's books, he revealed one strategy of the enemy against the body (army) of Christ:
when the soldiers were aligned against the enemy and shooting at him, the enemy would manipulate some of them to gather around a fallen comrade and attack him with their swords until he was dead!

I bet that's the strategy he/satan deviced against pastor Chris ministry and marraige. It has worked perfectly.

This issue didnt need to go public. It could've been settled discretely. No exposing each others wrongs in public. If divorce was inevitable, it could have occured with the world only knowing just what they needed to know.
No need mentioning the pastoresses Chris slept with etc.
If chris preaches against adultery now, who will listen?

If I talk as e dey my mind God fit vex for me.

Alz well.