Hope James



A widower has taken to social media to narrate how he lost his wife due to a fake prophecy given at a parish of the Celestial Church of Christ.

The anonymous victim shared his experience in reaction to an investigative piece done by the Foundation for Investigative Journalism with the title, “PROPHETS OF THEIR POCKETS (I): At Celestial Church of Christ, the Prophets Are Scammers,” and shared by the founder, Fisayo Soyombo, on his Twitter handle.

According to the victim, his ordeal started in August 2020, when he observed that his wife was growing leaner and he mentioned it to his mother-in-law, who took her to a Cele church. At the church, she was said to have received an “arrow” from someone.

In his words:“Because I was extremely busy at work and would not argue with my mom-in-law, I paid the fee they requested, N55k I think for the ‘ise’ (prayer). After a month or so, I went to see wifey and she wasn’t getting any better, so I decided to move her to the general hospital and then she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.”

“In about five months I spent more than N1.3m treating my baby but it was too late. Guess what? My baby still died leaving me a widower at just 27 with my beautiful young kids. All my savings gone because that one month she spent in church would probably have saved her life if we hadn’t spent it in church. I lost my job as well because her death broke me and I couldn’t concentrate, and almost committed suicide.

Since February last year, I haven’t stepped foot in any church but we thank God. Yes, I believe in God, but the church of God in Nigeria isn’t it. This is my story.” He ended.