By Korede YishauThere is one question I have been repeatedly asked since April 2018 when my novel, In the Name of Our Father, was published: Which real life pastor did you have in mind while conceptualising Prophet T.C. Jeremiah' My answer has always been that there was no specific person but an amalgam of evil men desecrating the pulpits.The hallmark of Prophet Jeremiahs life is deceit. He dupes the people in the name of God and feels people should be happy he, with a special grace, is the one messing up their lives.He gets involved in murder, infidelity, blackmail and sorcery in his desperation to retain his ill-gotten spiritual power, patronage by the rich and powerful, and relevance. He fears not God because he is sure the Father up there is merciful and does not strike like the god of thunder.On Tuesday, I encountered a man very close, if not worse than Prophet T.C. Jeremiah. The only difference between this man, Michael Oluronbi, and Prophet T.C. Jeremiah is that unlike the fictitious protagonist, there was no evidence that he was using fetish means to further his ends.But like T.C. Jeremiah, Oluronbi saw nothing wrong in having sex with his church members. Painfully, some of them were kids so it will not be out of place to describe him as cradle snatcher.Oluronbi, as presented in a special report published byThe Nationon Wednesday, was the definition of evil. The 61-year-old was laid bare by London Bureau Chief Olatunde Kazeem.The self-proclaimed pastor, who is a trained pharmacist, was convicted by the Birmingham Crown Court, United Kingdom, for sexually assaulting six girls and a boy. Some of the girls, who are now adults, are siblings.He raped one of them in her mothers bedroom and her room downstairs where the churchs altar was when mother was working at nights. One of them had five or six abortions over the space of five years.To add salt to injury, Oluronbis wife, Juliana aided his evil ways. She was also found guilty and is awaiting sentencing any moment from now. Some of the victims saidMrs. Oluronbi took them for abortions on two or three occasions.Oluronbis evil started in the 80s inCherubim and Seraphim Church of God,Ayo ni oEdgbaston parish, United Kingdom. The church was on Gillott Road in Edgbaston, Birmingham in the 1980s and belonged to Julianas parents.In 1989, Oluronbi broke away with about 40 members to set up his own Cherubim and Seraphim Church of God. A single mother of six offered him the sitting room of her family home in Winson Green, Birmingham, for service.Some of Oluronbis victims are the children of the single mother. His first move was to sow a seed of discord between, the woman and the father of her children. Oluronbi said he saw visions that her kids father was a bad person and ensured he was banished from the house.I did not want him as a husband. I wanted him for his prayer, his guidance. He was a pastor of the church and I wanted him for the security of my children, the woman told the police.Read Also:How Nigerian pastor raped six girls in UKBut Oluronbi wanted much more and he got it. After succeeding with that, he started a sexual dalliance with her but the evil in him made him reach for her daughters, and he was able to convince each of them not to reveal their affair to the other.It was not until 2009 when two of the siblings found the courage to discuss their abuse that the pastors end started. The sisters, then in their 30s, visited each other in the United States, after one had a baby.The husband of the host overheard the conversation about the abuse and telephoned Oluronbi to challenge him about his behaviour. Another sibling, who was visiting Nigeria last year, also discovered that she was not alone in the abuse. The West Midlands police was contacted using a text-based reporting system.Oluronbi was arrested last May at the Birmingham Airport. It was feared that he was attempting to flee the country. When the case got to the court, victims laid his evil ways bare, including how he would rub jelly on the genitals of a nine-year-old to make penetration of his penis possible.Using the excuse that God asked him to conduct holy baths to ward off evil spirits, Oluronbi violated them leading to unwanted pregnancies and terminations.That it could escalate in that way owes itself to the grip this man had over them, the crown prosecutor, Phil Bradley, stated at the Birmingham Crown Court.The Police said: His conduct towards all of them is made all the worse because of the context in which it occurred. He was the pastor of the church at which all his victims and their families worshipped.Detective Inspector Dave Sproson, from the Public Protection Unit, added: These were sickening crimes committed against children who had put their trust in Oluronbi and looked up to him. I hope his conviction offers some closure to the victims and I would like to thank them for their bravery throughout the trial.What this story confirms to me is that religion has become an instrument of enslavement by men pretending to speak for God.A particular man of God in Nigeria relishes showing us funny theatrics, including getting the devil to visit his church and his technical team interviewing the devil, who boasted that he was the first pastor standing up to him.This mans theatrically violent performance is only one example of bizarre practices that have crept into Christianity.My final take: Trusting God is not akin to suspending ones brain and serving God is not synonymous with being gullible.Certainly, having faith has absolutely nothing to do with being stupid. Every man of God is first a man.Like the rest of us, they make mistakes. It is wrong for anyone to sublet his or her life to them. We must always use our brains.
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