Abuja pastor accused of adultery, sexual harassment

The senior pastor of Nyanya Parish of Presbyterian Church of Nigeria, Mfom Umoren, is currently under fire as he has been accused of adultery and sexual harassment by some members of the church.

A former member of the church, Mba Kalu Achowa, is accusing the pastor of sleeping with his wife. According to , Mba Kalu Achowa who is one of the founding members of the church, is alleging that his home has been shattered since the pastor befriended his wife.

In a petition to the elders of the church, Mba Kalu Achowa who is a staff of the Federal Ministry of Interior in Abuja said that his wife of 18 years had abandoned her matrimonial duties and relocated to the pastor’s house.

“She leaves home early in the morning and comes home most times 10.30pm or 11pm. Pastor Umoren has taken over my wife. How can a married woman go to the minister’s house, whose wife lives in Lagos, and cook for him? She stays with him both in his house and office. I am pained as a man whose wife has decided to shift her matrimonial duties to this minister,” part of Mba Kalu Achowa’s petition read.

Mba Kalu Achowa through the petition went further to reveal that his wife suddenly changed after becoming friends with the pastor and has already asked for a divorce.

According to the Daily Sun report, Mba Kalu Achowa had accosted the pastor prior to writing the petition to the church elders. It was revealed that Mba Kalu Achowa stormed into the church one Sunday morning during service and started pursing the pastor. It reportedly took the intervention of members to calm Mr. Achowa down before the service could continue.

The other accusation is from another member, Mrs. Ibiam Uzoamaka, who was a head teacher of Presbyterian Divine Academy, a school owned by the church.  In her own petition to the elders of the church, Mrs. Ibiam Uzoamaka said her appointment was recently terminated because she refused the sexual advances from the pastor.

“He even threatened me that he was going to force me if I kept refusing. To ensure that he enticed me, he increased my salary from N27, 000, which was agreed by the school committee to N30, 000. He gave me a perfume, which I refused to use. Till this day, the perfume is still with me,” part of the petition read.

The embattled pastor has however denied the allegations, saying that the accusers are trying to blackmail him. Speaking with , Mfom Umoren said he would never do the things he has been accused of, because he is a man of God.

“They are not only mere allegations, they are all lies. The woman in question had always had problems with her husband, long before I was posted to the parish. The woman is very spiritual and she is an elder in the church. I can tell you that 99.9 per cent of the members of the church can tell you that there was nothing like that.  I did not buy perfume for any member of the church. I do not even use perfume myself. I have been born again since 1983 and I did not have sex with my wife before we got married. I do not involve in things like that,” Pastor Mfom Umoren said.