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For those of us who clearly remember 1987, it's hard to believe that 30 years ago at this time, the televangelist scandals were underway. Jim Bakker had just been outed by the Charlotte Observer for having sex with employee Jessica Hahn, while Oral Roberts had decreed that if he didn't receive enough money by March 31 to keep his hospital open, he would be "called home." For those, who like this blogger, feel some nostalgia for those days, there are false "prophets" of the New Apostolic Reformation ready to pick up the slack. Johnson Suleman of Auchi, Edo, Nigeria is one such "apostle." According to the website of his Omega Fire Ministries:
God gave His choice servant, Apostle Johnson Suleman a divine mandate to: “wipe out tears, restore people to their destinies by the revelation of the word, the manifestation of power and reality of the Holy Spirit.” He equally told His choice Servant: “Put an end to affliction; I AM SENDING YOU WITH AN OMEGA ANOINTING…”Needless to say, I'm not a believer in the New Apostolic Reformation, and we don't have Old Testament-style "Thus saith the Lord" prophets anymore. In the "here we go again" department, "Apostle" Suleman is now embroiled in a sex scandal. As reported by Ifreke Inyang of the Lagos Daily Post, March 6, 2017:
The OMEGA FIRE MINISTRIES INT. INC. was birthed to restore the joy of men, causing men to manifest destiny, becoming the best God created them to be and frustrating the wickedness of the enemy.
We believe in the fire operation of the Spirit of God that refines, purifies and equally destroys. Our ministry is one that believes in judgment on the wicked. We believe oppressions and demonic manipulations are real, we equally know that more real is the reality and authority of God’s power – it is all-powerful and all-pervading.
As a ministry, we hold as true the belief that all power belongs to God and that the enemy has no scriptural right to manipulate the destinies of believers; It is the right of believers to live a fulfilled life. Hence, this ministry is saddled with the divine mandate to restore the divine rights of believers.
OFM-South-Africa LogoOmega Fire Ministries Int’l was officially inaugurated on the 1st of February 2004 in Auchi, Edo State – Nigeria and is presided by the General of the Prophetic; Apostle Johnson Suleman. The miraculous is a common occurrence in the ministry as God confirms the Mandate given to his servant with infallible proofs. God’s servant Apostle Johnson Suleman is endowed with a rare prophetic insight; A Grace that has confirmed and established several African Leaders.
He speaks as an Oracle Of God on national and global matters as it affects the political, social and economic atmosphere of nations across continents of the world. The Accuracy of his uncommon prophetic analysis and confirmed predictions has earned him a name and fame in various fields of human endeavor. Omega Fire Ministries Int’l is one the fastest growing ministries in Africa and By God’s Grace clocked exactly Ten years on February 1st 2014. With just Ten years of operation our branch network spreads across Europe, America and various parts of Africa. The International Headquarter Church of the Omega Fire Ministries Int’l is located in KM 132, Okene/Abuja Expressway, Auchi, Edo State, Nigeria.
Senior Pastor of Omega Fire Ministries, Apostle Johnson Suleiman, is being accused by one Stephanie Otobo of impregnating and abandoning her."Apostle" Suleman denies the allegations, as reported by Wale Odunsi of the Daily Post, March 6, 2017:
A letter from Festus Keyamo Chambers dated March 4, 2017 and addressed to the Inspector-General of Police claimed that Stephanie began a romantic relationship with Suleiman in Canada in 2015.
She claimed that the pastor told her he was divorced from his wife and proposed to her, before meeting with her family for introduction, declaring his intention to marry her.
Stephanie also alleged she abandoned her lucrative career, her cars, friends and house in Canada because Suleiman promised to buy her a house in Nigeria.
In another letter dated March 3, 2017 written to Suleiman and also sent to the IGP, her lawyers claimed the cleric was so in love with her, that he had to lick her entire body every time they had sex.
It added that Suleiman invited Stephanie from Canada to Europe, where he made love with her all night after Church programmes.
It is even being alleged that Stephanie was the one sending topic of sermons for the pastor to preach and the songs to be sung.
The letter said the pastor invited Stephanie to his church in Nigeria and begged her to get pregnant for him, as he wanted more male children.
Stephanie who is demanding N500million in damages for the breach of trust, also revealed messier details like Suleiman asking her to bring a friend along for a threesome and to send her nude pictures to him.
Suleiman was also accused of intimidating and harassing Stephanie, after men of the Nigeria Police Force, Monitoring Unit, Kem Salem House, Obalende, Lagos, arrested her inside a banking hall.
Her lawyers gave Suleiman a seven-day ultimatum to meet its demands.
See documents below:
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The Omega Fire Ministries has denied that the General Overseer of the church, Apostle Johnson Suleiman has a hand in the arrest and detention of one Miss Stephanie Otobo by the police last Friday, March 3, 2017.Miss Otobo expanded on her allegations, as reported by Ifreke Inyang in the Daily Post, March 10, 2017 (link in original):
A statement signed by Phrank Shaibu, Communications Manager to Apostle Suleiman also denied that there was a so-called amorous relationship between the said Miss Otobo and the General overseer.
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 Suleiman 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 Suleiman, 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 Suleiman 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 Suleiman to extort N500million through this plot, they sure have missed it as we shall have our day in court.”
The adultery scandal involving the General Overseer of Omega Fire Ministries, Apostle Johnson Suleiman and a Canadian-based lady, Stephanie Otobo, is getting messier.Miss Otobo's mother says that her daughter "is not normal," as reported by Danielle Ogbeche of the Daily Post, March 24, 2017:
This is as she revealed more details about their alleged affair at a press conference in Lagos on Friday.
Ms. Otobo claimed the cleric loves sex a lot and that they had spent time together at hotels in Naples, New York and Lagos.
“Most of the times we spent together, we had sex,” Ms. Otobo told journalists.
“I refused to have a threesome with him because I’m not a lesbian and I don’t like women touching me.
“He told me he did that with all his past girlfriends, that I was the only one (who refused), that it’s very rude that I can do that to him.
“We were at New York together, two months after I left Napoli. Then he invited me to Nigeria. We were always having sex,” she said.
She added: “In Nigeria, we stayed at Protea Hotel in Ikeja. there’s another hotel after Airport Hotel, there’s a gas station, there’s a new hotel on your right, that’s where he gave me something to drink. I thought it was juice, he brought it, he said let’s drink together, and then he didn’t want to drink, he wanted to eat.
“The night he gave me 8,000 Euros, he was trying to show me that this was real and it would never end, I think he was trying to capture me both physically, spiritually, and mentally.
“Giving somebody so much money, you’re trying to capture them so that without you, they cannot live, because you wanna make yourself their god, that’s what he was trying to do.
“When he came, he was like, ‘this was all I realised today, here you go,’ on the table. Then he said this is how much I love you. After the three days crusade (in Naples), he collected all the money, I was inside, and he said, ‘this is all I realised.’ He gave me everything.
“He told me this was discreet, we couldn’t even call a taxi in the morning when he wanted to discharge me, he had to take a walk with me from his hotel by 4 a.m. to my hotel. I was worried because it could be dangerous, in a place where I don’t know, a new country and everything. He walked me to my hotel and stayed till 7am and went back to his hotel. He said because we have to be discreet, we cannot call a taxi.”
Ms. Otobo called on the police to check her bank records to see proof that Apostle Suleiman sent her money directly from his bank account.
She also denied that the pictures she released were photoshopped.
“He gives me a lot of cash, I’m not talking about 8,000 Euros, I’m not talking about 12,000 Dollars in two weeks.
“If I was a cheap prostitute, how much do you send a cheap prostitute in Canada all the way from Nigeria. I’m based in Canada, I’m sure there are a lot of women that needs money here in Nigeria, how many women or cheap prostitutes has he sent money here in Nigeria?
“We are petitioning the police on that. And also the issue of photoshopping pictures, in between the photoshopped pictures there should be an original copy if the pictures were photoshopped, it must be photoshopped from something, he should provide that. Because I have the cell phones that I used to take the pictures, I still have every original pictures.
“Also, the police should check my passport, he took me to Napoli, he had a programme there, a conference for three days. The police should check his passport, the period it was stamped to Napoli and check my passport, the period I was stamped to Napoli if it was the same stamp.
“He should wake up and face the truth,” she said.
Mother of Stephanie Otobo, the alleged girlfriend of Apostle Johnson Suleman of the Omega Fire Ministries, has said she has not seen her daughter in the last three years, noting that her daughter ”is not normal.”Mama Tope then went to "Apostle" Suleman to beg for forgiveness, as reported by John Owen Nwachukwu in the Daily Post, March 27, 2017:
This is coming after Ms. Otobo, a Canadian-based Nigerian singer accused the fiery preacher of impregnating and abandoning her after he promised to marry her.
Following her initial allegation against the preacher, the singer had continued to release more intimidating details about her alleged romance with Suleman.
But her mother, popularly called Mama Tope has opened a fresh controversy on the much publicized saga.
In a chat with newsmen in Sapele, Delta State on Thursday, Mama Tope said she has not met the cleric before, neither has she been to the Omega Fire Ministries.
Describing as untrue claims that she accompanied her daughter to the headquarters of Omega Fire Ministries in Auchi, Edo State for a purported introduction ceremony, she warned that, “those manipulating her daughter against the man of God would be exposed.”
She expressed willingness to, “see the revered cleric to apologize if given access to him.”
She further lamented that, “all efforts to get Stephanie to lead a normal life had not yielded the desired result.”
Mama Tope appealed to Apostle Suleman to, “forgive my daughter and bury the hatchet” even as she blamed the devil for seeking to destroy her daughter.
Tope Otobo, the mother of Stephanie Otobo, the accuser of founder of Omega Fire Ministry, and her elder sister were on Sunday at the Headquarters of the church at Auchi, Edo State to beg the pastor on behalf Stephanie."Apostle" Johnson then filed a countersuit, as reported by John Owen Nwachukwu in the Daily Post, March 29, 2017:
Images of the two women surfaced online shortly after the church service.
Mrs Otobo had recently claimed her daughter was not normal.
In a swift reaction, Stephanie said her mother was threatened to make the speech, adding that the lives of her family members were in danger.
But to make her statement stronger, Mrs Otobo and Stephanie’s sister were captured in a video gone viral kneeling and begging Apostle Suleman.
Founder and General Overseer of the Omega Fire Ministries Worldwide, Apostle Johnson Suleman has reportedly filed a lawsuit against his alleged mistress, Stephanie Otobo, and online news outlet, Sahara Reporters, for defaming his character and image at the Ikeja High Court, Lagos State."Apostle" Suleman is now refusing to speak on the matter for the present time, as reported by Festus Owete and Idris Ibrahim of the Abuja newspaper The Premium Times, April 3, 2017:
Suleman filed a N1 billion suit on Stephanie Otobo, who claimed she had amorous relationship with him that resulted to pregnancy.
Recall that Mrs Tope Otobo, Stephanie Otobo’s mother, had last Sunday visited the pastor at his church Headquarters in Auchi, Edo State, knelt and begged him to forgive her daughter.
Joined in the suit as reported by the man of God’s media team, is Sahara Reporters who first reported the case and has been in the forefront of publishing interviews by the Canada-based stripper who keeps maintaining her stance of being romantically involved with the Apostle Suleman.
In the suit ID/ADR/347/2017 filed at the Ikeja High Court, Apostle Suleman is also asking N1 billion from each for damages done to his reputation and has hired four lawyers, Chief Efe Akpofure (SAN ), Erhabour O.I, Victor Idiapho and Emmanuel Usoh to represent him.
Johnson Suleman, the clergyman accused by a Canada-based Nigerian woman of having amorous relationship with her, on Sunday, declined to speak on the allegation, saying he would only “open up” at the appropriate time.Miss Otobo, meanwhile, has released a video containing screen shots of her face time with the "apostle," as reported by John Owen Nwachukwu of the Daily Post, April 3, 2017:
PREMIUM TIMES met Mr. Suleman, the founder of Omega Fire Ministry, OFM, in his Auchi, Edo State office for about 20 minutes shortly after a church service that lasted about four hours.
Our reporters joined the service midway, where Mr. Suleman spoke about the need for unity in the body of Christ in his sermon.
The cleric, who said he was rushing to the Benin airport to catch a flight to Cyprus and Turkey for religious crusades, pleaded with PREMIUM TIMES to be excused from commenting on the matter because it would be subjudicial to speak on it.
This newspaper had on Saturday interviewed Ms. Otobo’s mother, Bukky, at her Sapele, Delta State base.
The light-complexioned woman had said during the interview that she travelled to Auchi to beg Mr. Suleman because her daughter had been manipulated by lawyers.
She had said, “I did that because of my daughter, (and) because I am a mother. The way I am seeing her is not the way I brought her up. And all those her character is not giving me happiness which I want to put an end to. That is why I went to Auchi.”
Mr. Suleman who was approached by this newspaper to speak on the issue, said he would “only do so at the appropriate time.”
He assured that he would speak to PREMIUM TIMES because of the newspaper’s credibility.
He thereafter offered to take a group photograph with the newspaper’s reporters in his palatial office.
Apart from veiled references to the matter during church services, Mr. Suleman has not publicly reacted to the allegations in the media.
His publicists, Phrank Shaibu, had however issued several statements denying the alleged illicit affair with Ms. Otobo.
Ms. Otobo was recently re-arraigned by the police for alleged blackmail, threat to life, conspiracy, and intent to steal from Mr. Suleman.
She was arraigned alongside her associate, Wisdom Godstime, before Magistrate Kikelomo Bukola-Ayeye of the Tinubu Magistrates’ Court in Lagos. Ms. Otobo and her co-defendant pleaded not guilty to the charges.
They were granted bail in the sum of N100,000 each. The case was then adjourned to April 27 for commencement of trial.
This development comes a week after Ms. Otobo formally filed a petition asking the police to investigate multiple allegations against the preacher.
In a letter to the Lagos State Police Commissioner, she accused Mr. Suleman of illegal procurement of abortion, threat to life, and attempted murder.
Ms. Otobo’s petition came days after she told journalists at a press conference that her relationship with Mr. Suleman ended after the preacher began to insist he wanted a sexual activity that involved a threesome.
The alleged mistress of the General Overseer of Omega Fire Ministry, Worldwide, Apostle Johnson Suleman, Stephanie Otobo, has Presented original screen of her topless Face-time chat with the cleric.
The 23-year old Canada-based Nigerian singer released a video showing the moments they had a video phone call topless.
Recall that the Delta-born singer had accused the Pastor of engaging in an amorous relationship with her, getting her pregnant and promised to marry her, but abandoned her afterward.
There have been denial, accusations and counter accusations since then, with Stephanie’s mother, Mrs Tope Otobo attending the pastor’s church in Auchi, Edo State to plead with him to forgive her daughter.
Apostle Suleman has also file a suit, demanding N1 billion from his accusers.
But in a video gun viral Monday morning, Miss Otobo, in bid to justify her claims, revealed images of her and the cleric during a face-time chat.
Of course, Miss Otobo's allegations haven't yet been proven, but I suspect that this situation will get messier as it goes along.
January 27, 2018 update: Miss Otobo now admits that she lied; as reported by Fikayo Olowolagba of the Lagos Daily Post, January 27, 2018 (link inserted by blogger):
Stephanie Otobo, the Canadian-based singer has confessed she lied against Apostle Suleman Johnson of the Omega Fire Ministries.
She revealed this on Friday at Apostle Suleman’s church in Edo state.
According to Stephanie, she was paid heavily by some politicians to tarnish the image of the pastor in her desperation to become a popular singer.
In a video shared online, she appealed to the pastor and his wife, Lizzy, to forgive her, which they did. Mrs Suleman later prayed for her.
She said, “I came to Nigeria with a strong passion for my career and fell into the wrong hands of some powerful politicians and pastors who manipulated me in a wrong way to fault the man of God.
“They made me tell lies against him, because of my desperation for my career and I succumbed to it.
“At the time I didn’t know what was going on. I just wanted to help myself. They paid me a lot of money.
“I want to apologise to the body of Christ; Apostle Suleman and his wife. I was used and paid against Apostle Suleman.
Watch the video...
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