A female evangelist, Kwanye Tumba, has dragged the Pastor of House Chapel in Karewa, Yola North Local Government Area of Adamawa State, Marwa Tumba, before a Criminal Area Court II for allegedly refusing to marry her.
This is coming barely a week after the police in the state detained two Pentecostal pastors over alleged infidelity which has resulted in the birth of two children.
Evangelist Kwanye told the court presided over by Hon Nuhu Musa Garta that the 28-year-old pastor had promised to marry her, but dumped her for another girl after squandering her hard earned money and wasted her time.
She told the court that she first met the pastor after a prayer meeting at Yolde Pate, a suburb of Yola South LGA in 2019, where he told her that he saw a vision that she got a husband.
The lady evangelist explained that Pastor Marwa informed her that she was now his wife and immediately ordered her to start “sowing a seed.”
She stated that she began “sowing a seed” as directed by the pastor by giving him the sum of N1,000 at first.
Kwanye said the pastor later visited her in her personal house, which she built while working with a non-governmental organisation, adding that she welcomed him, cooked food for him and immediately, they started their relationship with a promise that he would marry her as he had seen in the vision.
She further narrated that her pastor boyfriend later told her to resign from her job and sell her house before getting married, a directive she obeyed and sold her house for N500,000.
The lady evangelist said when she was paid the money for the house, she immediately transferred the sum of N50,000 as tithe into the account of the pastor while she expended the remaining amount to support the church until it was exhausted.
She told the court that at a time, the pastor requested her to give him the list of all items required by tradition for their marriage and she did.
The complainant told the court that the pastor then asked her to go back to her parents in Michika and await him with a promise to join her later for a proper introduction and arrangement for marriage.
Kwanye added that after she spent many days in the village without seeing the pastor coming for introduction as he had promised, and when her parents discovered that it was a lie, they sent her out of their house.
She said since then, the pastor refused to pick her calls, adding that when she got tired and became disappointed, she left Michika to Yola.
The lady evangelist stated that when she got to Yola, she could not trace the whereabouts of Pastor Marwa again.
She lamented that the pastor abandoned her after squandering her money, made her to quit her job, sold her only house, and became miserable, saying that she currently lives in one uncompleted building in Yolde Pate and sells vegetables to earn a living.
But when the statement of the complaint was read to the defendant (pastor) during his arraignment in court on Monday, he denied the lady’s claims.
But the pastor’s counsel, M. A. Mohammed, pleaded with the court to grant bail to his client, which the court did as prayed and subsequently adjourned the matter till February 4, 2021 to enable the complainant to assemble her witnesses to prove her case.
During Tuesday’s court session, Pastor Marwa was seen in company with another lady, who it was learnt he had already engaged.