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Six months after demise: Members desert late Ajanaku’s church

  – Congregation dwindles to 150

+Burial date and venue undecided,  N500,000 spent at mortuary 

Barely six months after the demise of the controversial  Gbogan, Osun born spiritualist and former spiritual father of Yoruba gospel singer, Tope Alabi, late Prophet Ajanaku, members have dumped the once buoyant ministry. ENCOMIUM Weekly checks revealed that the ministry which recorded over 2,000 members at times during the era of the late prophet now barely record over 150. According to our source, this is not unconnected to the fact that many miracle seekers became members due to the spiritual power of the prophet and his prophetic messages which is now conspicuously missing.

A source squealed to us that he left because he was comfortable with the way and manner they managed his death issue.

“I wasn’t too happy with the stuff going on there, especially with the way they are going about his death issue. They quarrel with people who admitted that he is dead. We are not fools and everybody knows he has been certified dead, why the confusion? Also, some of his aides have turned the administration of the ministry to politics which I’m not comfortable with.”

Aside that, we learnt some left due to the many alleged controversies surrounding his death and several speculations about his involvement with occultism. They felt betrayed when the church authority didn’t have good explanation about the whole issue.

“Why keep everybody in the dark about such issues”, a source queried?

A source who witnessed the Sunday service few weeks back said the presiding pastor of the ministry, Pastor (Mrs.) Joy Ajanaku was the preacher and that over half of the congregation were absent. Aside that, he claimed that some of the over hundred members in attendance were sleeping while the sermon was on.

HOW MUCH THE CHURCH HAS SPENT IN PRESERVING HIS CORPSE?

ENCOMIUM Weekly authoritatively gathered that the church has spent about N500,000 preserving his corpse at the mortuary at 68 Military Hospital Road, Yaba, Lagos. ENCOMIUM Weekly’s check on Friday, February 28, 2014, revealed that N1 ,500 is the fee for the form and about N100,000 is for deposit of corpse, especially for VIPs. Then, preservation fee is N1,000 per day but for those who want special treatment they pay N1, 500 daily. We gathered Prophet Ajanaku falls into this category. Thus, for six months the church has paid about N300,000 on preservation alone. That excludes the other expenses they paid on tips for attendants, amongst other things. This was confirmed to us by one of the attendants, Mr. Yeyibo.

WHERE WILL HE BE BURIED?

Despite the disagreement between the family members and the disciples of late Prophet Ireti Ajanaku over his burial plans and date, ENCOMIUM Weekly gathered that he would be buried in Lagos. Although, the family preferred either his Lagos home or hometown, Gbogan, Osun State, they decided to respect the deceased’s wish to be buried at his church in Lagos.

HOW THE CHURCH IS RUN

Since the death of the controversial clergy, his widow, Joy, has been in charge as the general overseer. Information available to ENCOMIUM Weekly revealed that she has been in charge of ministration at Sunday services since her husband’s death.

We reliably gathered that she has been the brain behind her late hubby’s online stuffs, books and tapes before his passage. However, due to the myriad of issues she is having with the family, she is still hooked up in a rented apartment at Abule Egba, Lagos.

AJANAKU’S LAST HOURS

The whole palaver began on Sunday, August 18, 2013, when it was reported that the controversial clergy passed on, on Saturday, August 17, 2013, at Gbongan, Osun state. Few hours later, it was announced that he had resurrected. ENCOMIUM Weekly later gathered that his church members brought his corpse to Lagos and started a vigil, praying for his resurrection.

However, on Thursday, August 22, 2013, he was certified dead by a team of doctors. His corpse was deposited at the Military Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, on Friday, August 25, 2013. While the family members knew their son was dead, the church members still held on to the belief that he only went on a spiritual exercise.

  -FEMI OYEWALE

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