According to Punch, the Pastor of the Household of God Church, Lagos, Chris Okotie, has described an allegation levelled against him by Nollywood actor, Emeka Ike, that he is responsible for the crisis rocking his marriage, as rubbish.
Ike had, in a statement on Thursday, accused Okotie of stalling efforts he is making to save his marriage with Suzanne.
Trouble started in Ike’s home recently, when the wife accused him of assaulting her.
While the actor has repeatedly denied this, the woman is said to have filed for a divorce in a Lagos court.
Ike alleged that instead of Okotie, who he claimed to have admitted Suzanne to his church, to intervene in the matter, he was encouraging her to pursue the case.
Punch reports that he also claimed that the pastor gave the woman N500,000 to hire a Senior Advocate of Nigeria.
He added, “Yes, Pastor Chris Okotie just absolved (sic) my wife into his church without making any effort to get in touch with me. If, as a pastor, your church member is having issues with her husband, and you fail to do anything to resolve it, what kind of pastor are you? When I called him, he refused to pick my call. He also failed to react to a text message I sent to him. Is that a man of God?
“Even, if you have a police case, they will make an effort to hear from you before taking a position, not to talk of the church. I want the whole world to know because there is a lot of misinformation out there. The lawyer which Okotie hired for my wife is also frustrating every attempt I make to resolve the matter peacefully.”
But speaking through his media consultant in a telephone interview with The Punch correspondent on Thursday, Mr. Ladi Ayodeji, media consultant to Okotie, said Ike’s allegations were so baseless that he was not prepared to dignify them with a comment.
He said, “There is nothing to what he is saying. It is total rubbish. What is he saying? Why will the pastor be interested in his domestic issue? Will he say he wants to marry the woman?
“What kind of man will be saying that kind of things on the Internet? Why is it that each time any of them has any issue, they always want to bring Okotie into it? Responding to the outburst will only make the guy feel important. The pastor can’t dignify him with any.” (Punch)