A sequence that didn't make it in to our film featured Reverend Mrs Chika Oluchi. A remarkable women, she is in charge of The Mountain of the Lord Ministries International: Centre for Liberation. Her church is based in Ejigbo, a suburb of Lagos that is famous for having a very high concentration of churches.
She runs a widows' fellowship every Thursday night. The Widows' Fellowship is a chance for widows who are struggling to make ends meet to pray together and look for help. The church tries to gather food that can be distributed to the women and provides somewhere for them to sleep if they've become homeless. There are currently 120 women who come every week and a handful who live there.
We met the reverend when we were following up the case of a widower called Therese. She lost her husband a few years ago. Soon afterwards, she was introduced to a new church run by a husband and wife pastor couple.
At the end of her first visit to the church the pastors told Therese that her late husband had been a member of a devil-worshipping cult and persuaded Therese that God wanted her to sell everything her husband owned. The car (a Mercedes), carpets, a gas cooker, dining table and chairs, clothes, cutlery, crockery and even the curtains were all taken to the church. Therese was told that if anyone found out what had happened God would kill her and her children.
Therese ended up sleeping on the streets with her two teenage children. We were told that stories of how those in positions of power and respect had taken advantage of vulnerable individuals are common.
Luckily, Therese met Reverend Oluchi. For over a month she slept on the floor of the church without telling anyone what had happened, before the reverend managed to get the story out of her.
When we followed up this story during our filming we found the police just about to arrest the couple Therese accused. The police took us to the church in question. We watched as they stormed into the middle of Sunday service and arrested the couple.
We went along to court to see what would happen. The judge was clearly unimpressed with the couple, she adjourned the case to September but to stop the couple from absconding again she set bail at a £2000 each, a small fortune in Nigeria. Their two guarantors also had to provide up-to-date tax records. That was the killer. Finding someone with £2000 to lend them may not have been hard, but finding someone with up-to-date tax records in Nigeria is very difficult when few people actually pay tax. The couple were driven back to prison.
Therese still lives with the reverend and she has become a key member of the Widows' Fellowship.
If you want to contact the reverend, her address is:
The Mountain of the Lord Minitsries International: Centre for Liberation
29 Adekonye Street
Powerline - Ejogbo
Lagos
Find out more about Reporter Seyi Rhodes
