A woman that has children for her husband and had married him before a house is built has the right to live in the house with her children even after divorce under the provisions of the Married Woman Property Act 1882, a court held on Friday in Ibadan, Oyo State.

The belief that patriarchy is so entrenched in the Nigerian system and women have no rights even under the law has been proved to be an erroneous one, majorly propounded by those ignorant of the rights provided under the law, the court said in a landmark judgement.

The provisions of the Married Woman Property Act 1882 formed the basis of the pronouncement of the Chief Judge of Oyo State, Justice Munta Abimbola, on Friday in a property suit between a divorced couple, Toyin Arajulu, formerly known as Mrs Toyin James and her former husband, Mr James Monday.

The court held that “a husband who marries a wife and builds a house during the pendency of the marriage stands the risk of losing that house if he later divorces the woman who had children for him unless such woman, of her own volition, leaves the matrimonial home.”

Justice Abimbola, while ruling on the matter, emphasised what is known in law as the “palm tree justice,” which indicates that it does not matter in whose name the property stands or who pays what (on the property) and in what proportion as determination of such matters transcends all rights, legal or even equitable, but simply what order is fair and just in the circumstances of the case, citing the case of Home Vs Home (1962) 1 WLR 1124 at 1128.S 17 Married Woman Property Act 1882, which is a statute of general application.

Toyin Arajulu had filed the suit against her ex-husband, Monday James, who she married under Native Law and Customs in 1997 and for whom she had four children.

She claimed that while she was married to him, they had put resources together and built two flats of three bedrooms at Ayedun in Akure, Ondo State and procured a plot of land at No 7, Fadana Biala Estate, Olodo, Ibadan, where they built a three-bedroom flat and a storey building which is still under construction before their divorce in July 2014.

She averred that before the divorce, her husband had moved out of their matrimonial home in Olodo but only came constantly to try to forcibly eject her and the children, usually accompanied by thugs who attacked her and her children.

She added that on August 15, 2014, one of her children, Bidemi James, was wounded in one of the episodes of attempted violent eviction and the sum of N530,000 from her business taken by her ex-husband and his accomplices.

She claimed that he had concluded plans to sell off the joint property without her consent and had continued to victimise her and the children, asking the court for a declaration that the property is jointly owned by the two of them and an order that the landed property with the three-bedroom flat and uncompleted storey building be sold and proceeds divided equally between them and an order of perpetual injunction restraining James from harassing her and the children.

In his counter claim and defence, the ex-husband stated that when he bought and constructed the Akure property, his wife was a full housewife and had no contribution to the project, adding that the situation was the same for the Ibadan property as his wife only signed as a witness as she had no job and only depended on what he gave her to take care of the children when he travelled out of the country.

According to him, she was only trying to fraudulently take over his property, adding that her claims were vexatious, gold digging and an abuse of court process.

He also asked the court to declare that the receipts of purchase his ex-wife presented were forged and that she should vacate possession of the property which she had refused to give up despite service of statutory seven days owner’s intention to recover possession and perpetual injunction restraining her from occupying the building.

Justice Abimbola, while ruling on the case, held that the landed property at No 7, Fadana Biala Estate, Olodo, Ibadan, together with the three-bedroom flat and uncompleted storey building is jointly owned by the two.

On the second relief that both buildings be sold as requested by Toyin, Justice Abimbola held that, “I will not give such orders in respect of the two buildings. Particularly, Section 17 Married Women Law of Oyo state Cap 83, Laws of Oyo state 2000 gives a court the discretion as it thinks fit on the issues of title of possession to property.

“Section 18 also enjoins the court to treat such property as a joint property if the issue has to do with the maintenance of a matrimonial home. My order to this effect is that the completed three-bedroom flat on the land be retained as the matrimonial property and the four children are entitled as beneficial owners by way of a resulting trust created for them by their parents. The mother, as long as she remains unmarried, is directed to be in possession undisturbed in order to take care of her children.

“The uncompleted storey building is ordered to be sold by both parties and the proceeds divided in equal share. The half share shall go to the wife for the maintenance of the children. A divorced wife has no business being maintained,” Justice Abimbola held.

The court also restrained James from harassing Toyin any further or disturbing the quiet possession of the property by her and the children, holding that, “the rationale is that a husband who marries a wife and builds a house during the pendency of the marriage stands the risk of losing that house if he later divorces the woman who had children for him unless such woman, of her own volition, leaves the matrimonial home. Also, a divorced woman is not entitled to any maintenance allowance but maintenance of the children by way of settlement.”

The General Overseer of the Hour of Mercy Prayer Ministry Worldwide (Alaseyori), Prophet Muyideen Kasali, has urged Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, to give presidential contest another trial, Punch Metro reports.

Kasali said the fact that Atiku did not win the 2019 presidential election did not mean he could not win election for the exalted office in future.

A statement from the Head of Edidi Children School Foundation and wife of the General Overseer, Mrs. Oredolapo Awosika-Kasali, made available to journalists in Ado Ekiti on Sunday, said the cleric gave the admonition during the February edition of Hour of Mercy programme which rounded off a 27-day prayer and fasting to mark Kasali’s birthday celebration at the headquarters in Ibadan.

The cleric stated: “There is no loser in an election, but a learner. Atiku can still rule Nigeria in no distant future. God sparing our lives, 2023 will soon be here; he can contest again.

“It is not about age, but what he has to offer. He should join hands with President Muhammadu Buhari to make Nigeria great again and get her out of her numerous challenges,” the cleric said.

He also charged Buhari and other stakeholders in the electoral process to ensure that free, fair, transparent and credible governorship and House of Assembly elections in Saturday.

Alleluia Ministries pastor, Alph Lukau, who is said to have resurrected a man who was in a coffin at the weekend, has said he regrets the incident as the man was already alive when he arrived at the church.

While speaking during a radio interview on Wednesday evening, Lukau said he was busy with a sermon on Sunday when he was interrupted and told that a person in a coffin had been brought to the church.

“Before entering the premises of the church, the coffin began to shake, meaning the person was alive. I am really sorry for the misrepresentation of facts, the man was not dead and has never been in the mortuary as we earlier said,” Lukau explained.

When asked by the host why the man had been brought to the church in the first place, Lukau said: “I am not sure if I can make a statement that he was brought to me.

We are the house of God and I’m just a pastor serving in the house of the Lord. But I am sorry that we didn’t tell people the truth in the first place”, he added.

Lukau noted that the man was brought to the church by his family, who believed that something would happen if he was prayed for. He added that further questions about why the man was brought to the church would be better answered by the man’s family.

“I think that they brought the person to church because they believed that God had the ability to resurrect the person, but still our brother was a live even before they brought him to church and we really apologize for not telling the truth in the first place,” he said.

This article was fully culled from Punchng.com

Many Nigerian pastors and prophecies are like Siamese twins. There is hardly any salient issue they don’t make prophesy on. But most times, the fabulous predictions, usually attributed to inspiration from God, are always inaccurate.

The last presidential election received several unsolicited prophecies which particularly targeted President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party. Though the predictions appeared scary and laughable, they later turned out to be wide of the mark.

One of the prophecy merchants is a Nigerian pastor based in South Africa, Samuel Akinbodunse. The dark-skinned cleric in a video, which circulated on the Internet weeks before electioneering, walked with a measured spring in his step as he spoke to the congregation inside the capacious Freedom For All Nations Outreach church.

In a finality brooking no interference, he told the ecstatic congregation, “Please Nigerians warn Buhari that he is going beyond his boundary. That the Lord said his tenure is once and not twice. If not, he will not see the election o. If you know him and how to email the Presidency of Nigeria, please write (send) him a text (message). If he made (makes) a mistake to campaign for elections, before they vote, he will die.”

At this point, panic gripped some of the congregation, who were already standing, but clapped several times for the cleric’s damning prediction that sank into the expansive auditorium.

He continued, “And I am saying the truth, I am saying the truth. Tell him the same voice that spoke when people said Jonathan would be the President of Nigeria, the same voice is speaking to him that he must not make that mistake. Let him eat whatever he wants to eat inside (the) sugar that he is now and leave the sugar jejely. If not, he will die. That is just the message. I am not afraid of…Any man who kill (sic) me today him help me because eternity is waiting for me already. If you kill me today, many Samuels will rise tomorrow. What is the essence of killing me because there are many Samuels that will rise?”

The cleric’s prophecy is abundantly inaccurate as the presidential and National Assembly elections were not only shifted from February 16 to February 23 by the Independent National Electoral Commission, Buhari also participated in electioneering with his party, and INEC later declared him winner of the election.

Akinbodunse’s prediction went off the mark as events later proved but Nigerians, via the social media, expectedly lashed out at him.

On a social network site, Nairaland, Brightest04 said, “He wants to let people know that he exists. I don’t blame him; after sleeping with other people’s wives, he intends to see things. I think these men have taken God and His name as a toy; hence they use his name vainly. And this stupidity is synonymous with Christians.”

Saying he holds a degree in Systematic Theology, Brightest04 added, “It baffles me how people roughly use the name of their creator and indeed the creator of everything in existence in a foolish way. These men are satanically-controlled and the people who listen to them have to be careful so that they don’t partake in their calamities.”

Earlier, Akinbodunse, in another sermon, which video gripped the Internet, said the country’s next President was a youth whose name starts with letter ‘S’.

He stated that he would not say what God didn’t tell him, urging Buhari to step down for the youth with a call on ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo to support the incoming ‘youth’ President.

Also, a pastor of the Christ Apostolic Church, Akure, Ondo State, Simeon Akorede, reportedly predicted Buhari’s defeat in the presidential election.

Though Akorede said God didn’t tell him who would become the country’s next president when he spoke with journalists in Akure, he noted that God showed him that Buhari had lost the opportunity and the grace to rule Nigeria again.

He said, “God revealed to me that the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari is not given the grace to govern Nigeria for a second term.”

But the results of the presidential election released by INEC made mincemeat of Akorede’s prediction. The commission said Buhari won his re-election bid polling 15,191,847 votes to defeat Atiku who got 11,262,978.

The prophetic utterance of Prophet John Ogundele of the Recreation Word Apostolic Church, Lagos, about the presidential election was entirely different from others. He ruled that neither Buhari nor Atiku would emerge winner of the election.

In a video showing him in a service/prayer session, Ogundele stated before the congregation, “You may be calculating in your mind that if Buhari doesn’t become the President, then it will be Atiku because Obasanjo supports him.

“Let me tell you as a prophet of God that among Obasanjo, Atiku and Buhari and those who you think are influential (in the country), God said He had withdrawn power from them. None of them will get on to the seat of power. Atiku will spend a lot of money but the money will cause conflicts in the country. If Atiku doesn’t come, there will be no new government.”

In the number 30 of his 50 prophecies for 2019 released last December, the General Overseer of the Omega Fire Ministries International, Apostle Johnson Suleiman, said, “I saw most eastern states won by the APC at the national level.” By whatever interpretation given to the prophecy, it didn’t come to pass as far as the last presidential election was concerned.

Either in the number of states in the eastern region or lawmakers produced for the National Assembly, the PDP won most votes and the states in the South-East, and not the APC. From Abia, Enugu, Imo, Ebonyi to Anambra, Atiku dwarfed Buhari with his acceptance and adoption in the region.

Like many of his past prophecies that didn’t come to pass, the Presiding Bishop, Divine Seed of God Chapel Ministries, Ibadan, Oyo State, Wale Olagunju, had predicted several months before the presidential election that Buhari would be roundly defeated by Atiku.

Being based in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, his prophecy might have come true, at least in the state, where Atiku marginally defeated Buhari in the presidential poll.

Quoting him in one of his interviews with a national newspaper, Olagunju said, “Let me congratulate President Muhammadu Buhari for winning the ticket of his party, the All Progressives Congress, and let me also make it clear to him that he will lose to Atiku Abubakar. Let me also congratulate Atiku in advance because he will win the next presidential election come 2019.

“Let me say, as a matter of fact, that Buhari does not need an alfa or prophet to deceive him that he would win the election, for as God lives, he would lose.”

The elections have come and gone but the outcome thoroughly faulted Olagunju’s prediction.

For Prophet David Babalola of His Presence Redemption Ministry International, Lagos, Atiku would trounce Buhari in the election.

He stated that he was on a mountain and saw Buhari on the right and Atiku on the left.

He said he asked God what the vision meant and God told him, “I can go back for the good to come. For you to have the best, that means there is bad before the good. It is power turnaround.’’

Babalola said, “I look at the announcement they announced (sic). They said Atiku have (has) won the presidency. Let everyone pray effectively that they will hand over.’’

The cleric added that Atiku had been ordained Nigeria’s President since 2012, saying, “Atiku won the election.’’

But despite the cacophony of failed prophecies on the presidential election, Prophet Emmanuel Stephen of the Mountain of Grace and Glory Ministry Worldwide, Lagos, reeled out a prediction which left the congregation and those who watched the video online in a pensive mood.

Before the poll shift, the prophet said he saw that Atiku wanted to sit on a seat decorated in the nation’s colours; but someone took the seat away from him and he sat on the floor before the seat reappeared and the incumbent President Buhari sat majestically on it.

After the poll delay, in another online video, the prophet stated, “Between Atiku and Buhari, I said something in my earlier prophecy. As Atiku walked to sit on a throne decorated with the country’s colours, someone came and removed the throne and he sat on the floor. Last December, I said when the throne reappeared; the current President Buhari already sat on it.

“I want to make a major comment about it because many of those who made comments about the video of the prophecy online don’t know who God is. There is a time God will look and changed His mind. There are several places in the Bible where God changed his mind.

“As of December last year, I saw Buhari on the throne as President. The surprising thing is that even as the presidential election is six days away, the prophecy has not changed. The man I saw walk to the throne is not the man that sat on it. What makes a prophet a genuine one is the confident of maintaining what you have said.” After that utterance, the video ended.

Commenting on the issue, a senior pastor at the Glory Centre Community Church, Lagos, Pastor Kunle Zakariya, said there were many reasons why it appeared that some prophecies don’t come to pass.

He said, “Many prophecies have been fulfilled in the past and we cannot deny the fact that prophecies come to pass. For instance, Pastor Tunde Bakare of the Latter Rain Assembly gave a prophecy about the 1992 elections that came to pass. Pastor Enoch Adeboye has also given many prophecies that came to pass.”

Zakariya told SUNDAY PUNCH that prophecies didn’t come to pass owing to many reasons, ranging from fake pastors to misinterpreting prophecies by even some genuine men of God.

He said, “However, some prophecies do not come to pass because God didn’t talk to the person; they were probably based on the person’s bias. Such bias could be political, ethnic or logic-based. “Many times, when one has a bias, one will think one is hearing God but one is only hearing one’s bias. At times, people don’t hear God; they just make predictions by studying the situation and wanting to predict. People who do that are not genuine men of God.

“Another reason it looks like prophecies don’t come to pass is because most of times, people don’t understand that prophecy is a major school. The Bible says that we prophesy in part because we see in part.”

The cleric added that there were different stages of a prophetic word.

Zakariya said, “You receive the prophecy, interpret it and deliver it. Most pastors miss it in the aspect of interpreting the prophecy. For example, during Buhari and the late President Umaru Yar’Adua’s tribunal tussle, a man of God saw a vision where Yar’Adua was wheeled out of Aso Rock. He interpreted that because it was the time of the tribunal Buhari would win at the tribunal and Yar’Adua was on his way out of Aso Rock. He saw the right prophecy but he interpreted wrongly. It was later he understood that Yar’Adua was going to leave through sickness and it was the typology of the wheel chair he saw.”

He noted that a man of God could get a prophecy and miss the interpretation because the language pattern of God was different from men’s.

“I think the lessons for all of us to know that God is God and man is man. We also need to know that some genuine one can appear to miss it, where they miss it is the interpretation,” Zakariya stated while buttressing his point further.

“Some prophecies also have conditions; you might see the prophecies and miss the condition. For instance, somebody might see that Buhari is going if certain things happen. You might see that Buhari is going but the other person see that part you didn’t see and you didn’t see that other part.”

The pastor added that to forestall such in the church, pastors should unite and get a broader view and an accurate interpretation of prophecies before reeling them out to the public.

He said, “This is where I think the church has to be united. Prophetic word from the elders of the body of Christ should be judged by themselves. There should be a council. I think where they can share note, and then share strong and true prophetic words for the nations. But there is no doubt that prophesying is accurate. We have seen it in the Bible and even in contemporary times. Prophecies are true, people sometimes miss the interpretation and there are also fake pastors.”

He further said he could not tell whether a pastor should share a prophecy or not because the Lord who showed them would teach them how to administer it.

On his part, an Islamic cleric, Alfa Jamal Ahmed, said many people enjoyed saying things to please themselves, adding that all utterances and one’s ways should be committed to God.

He said, “If you notice, you hardly see Islamic clerics go about saying all sorts although few of them do so. Most times, those people who give all those prophecies speak based on what they want and for the candidates of their choice. They are not speaking God’s mind.”