A Nigerian artiste, Stephanie Otobo has accused the Omega Fire Ministries General Overseer, Apostle Johnson Suleman of using the police force to harass her in addition to breaching a proposal to marry her.
Solicitors for Otobo, Festus Keyamo Chambers made the issue public on Sunday, saying the clergyman had promised to marry Otobo and led her to falsely believe that he had legally divorced his wife.
Otobo who fell hopelessly in love with the Suleman had then forfeited her affluent lifestyle in Europe, to honor the proposition extended to her by the apostle to marry him and live with him in Nigeria, the solicitors said.
However, after some time passed, Suleman had broken the promise to marry the artist, giving her cold shoulder even when she reminded him of his promise.
Otobo had then sued the Apostle for N500m.
Instead of getting a solicitor to fight his course in the court of law or just paying the sum to the aggrieved lady, Apostle Suleman allegedly engaged the help of policemen to arrest and incarcerate Otobo without any explanation.
However, after the lady’s solicitors petitioned the Inspector General of Police and the news trickled out that Apostle Suleman had detained a woman who sued him for breaking his promise to marry her, the church came out to deny the allegation on behalf of its General Overseer.
Phrank Shaibu spokesman of the church said Suleman has no hand in the arrest and detention of one Otobo by the police last Friday.
Shaibu also denied on behalf of Suleman that there was a so called amorous relationship between the said Miss Otobo and the General Overseer, including a promise to marry her.
Instead, the church stated that the lady was arrested by operatives acting on a tip off that the lady had repeatedly tried to blackmail the fiery preacher, including demanding N500 million from him, failing which she threatened to expose a purported amorous relationship between her and the Senior Pastor.
The statement of Omega Fire Ministries was in reaction to two letters written by Lagos lawyer, Festus Keyamo demanding the same N500 million on behalf of the said lady and also accusing Apostle Suleiman of procuring policemen to intimidate and detain his client unlawfully, having earlier promised to marry her.
But Phrank Shaibu said the lawyer was misled into believing that there was an amorous relationship between Apostle Suleman and the said Miss Otobo, pointing out that the lady was caught up by her own machinations as she was arrested while trying to withdraw money paid into her account by the Church in a sting operation coordinated by the police.
“Unknown to Keyamo, the police was alerted following several attempts by the said lady to blackmail Apostle Suleiman. The police also recorded her conversations making the frivolous demand. The highpoint of the drama was her attempt to withdraw money paid into her account at the instance of the police. The lawyer should know that his client was arrested by the police with abundance of evidence confirming that she is indeed a serial blackmailer”, he said.
The Communications Manager further debunked Keyamo’s claim of an amorous relationship, a promise to marry and that the Senior Pastor had actually made the initial move towards marriage by seeing her parents, wondering how such a transaction could have taken place without any iota of evidence.
“Let me place it on record that, the lady in question is a self-confessed stripper in a nite club in Canada, who like thousands of people that seek help from Apostle Johnson Suleman, called to pretentiously convey her intentions to embrace Christ and also needed financial help to keep body and soul as she no longer had a means of livelihood after quitting as a stripper. “
“Does Keyamo or his serial blackmailing client have pictures of the visit by Apostle Suleiman or his representatives to her parents? In any case, how could such a relationship have existed when Apostle and the said lady have never met physically? How could he have made a promise of a house and a lifestyle comparable to what she has in Canada when he has never been to her house or seen her physically as to have an idea of her living standards?” he asked.
Shaibu contented that the Lagos lawyer must have been misled or excited by the prospects of getting a whopping N500 million, both reasons for which two letters were written and sent to Apostle Suleiman wondering how Keyamo could have fallen for such a gimmick in the first place.
“If Keyamo was not misled or excited by the prospects of a jackpot of N500 million and or an opportunity to save his already dwindling career in law practice from total caput by latching on the popularity of Apostle Suleman vide this tendentiously devilish plot and skewed romantic fantasy, then we may as well demand an evaluation of his mental state along with his client who was obviously on the verge of delusion before she was arrested. It’s either one of the options stated above or he is trying to engage in a proxy war on behalf of some unknown agents who had become irritated by Apostle’s stand on national issues. His inference to the latter incident in Keyamo’s letter to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) confirms this benign thought”, he declared.
The spokesman of the church advised Keyamo to drop the proxy war and focus instead on defending his client in court adding that all attempts to impugn the integrity of the fiery preacher or the Omega Fire Ministries would fall like a pack of cards.
“We are not surprised that this serial blackmailer decided to join forces with a serial divorcee, who has had five children from four failed marriages to make this phantom claim. But we dare to ask; Is a serial blackmailer and or a serial divorcee capable of understanding the sanctity of the institution called marriage?The nature of their mental torpidity is understandable and we invite more recondite and decent persons to read in between the lines and separate the wheats from the chaff.”
“In this well coordinated plot to pull down Apostle Suleman at all costs, the lines of Reuben Abati will suffice ; “lies have become standard stuff, mischief a major commodity, and indecency a character flaw. “
If Keyamo and his Canada-returnee client think they can capitalize on the famed generosity of Apostle Suleman to extort N500million through this plot, they sure have missed it as shall have our day in court.”
