Abiara remarries @ 75…wife 57 marries for the first time

By Abraham Oladipupo

The just retired General Evangelist of the Christ Apostolic Church and Senior Pastor of the Christ Apostolic Church, Agbala Itura, Prophet Samuel Kayode Abiara has remarried. Abiara had lost his first wife, Prophetess Christiana Abiara in September 2016. He however got married to 57-year-old Grace Olubunmi Ojewande on Thursday 22nd of March amidst tight security.

The wedding of Prophet Abiara swelled the rank of top pastors in Nigeria who could not hold on after the demise of their spouses. One of the earliest top pastor who remarried was Pastor Taiwo Odukoya who lost his wife in a Sosoliso plane crash on the 10^th of December 2005 along with 102 other people thus ending the 21-year-old marriage.

On January 5 2010, five years after, with love and support from family and friends, Taiwo Odukoya got married again to Rosemary Simangele Zulu from South Africa. They have two boys together, Timilehin and Jomiloju.

Shortly following Odukoya’s move was that of Apostle Anselm Madubuko, General Overseer of Revival Assembly who remarried on August 21 2013 a Kenyan and popular gospel singer, Emmy Kosgei having lost his wife Connie to cardiac arrest a year earlier.  He was away on missions when his wife died.

But the one that generated so much public debate was the remarriage of the General Superintendent of Deeper Life Bible Church Pastor W.F Kumuyi in 2010. The Osun State born humble preacher married Esther Folashade Adenike Blaize at a secret ceremony in London, on Wednesday, October 13, 2010, exactly 18 months after Sister Abiodun Kumuyi, his wife, died of cancer. Information has it that the 65-year-old new wife is well known in the Deeper Life family and had been single all the while.  She is also the Administrator of the Deeper Life Bible Church, London.  The court and church wedding were done in the UK, with some select pastors of Deeper Life in attendance.  In 2009, when his wife, Sister Abiodun Kumuyi died, Kumuyi told news men that, “It is too early to think of a replacement.”  And now, 18 months after, he found a replacement Blaize.

Prophet Abiara seems to be following in the heels of Pastor Kumuyi as he married at the C.A.C Agbala Itura International Headquarters located at Olode, Ibadan.  The wedding witnessed large turnout of guests despite the church’s effort to make the marriage an internal affair.

The 57-year-old bride who a source said had never been married before exchanging vow with Prophet S.K. Abiara is said to have spent her whole life working in the vineyard of God. She is a civil servant in Lagos State but may have to resign her assignment so she could take up ministry responsibility.

The wedding which kicked off with the payment of dowry and other traditional rites was followed by a church service and reception which were strictly by invitation.

Every attempt by journalists to enter the venue of the church service proved abortive as the church authority insisted that the event was not meant to be published.

There were angry looking protocol officials who took over the phones, cameras and other gadgets of journalists and anyone who attempted to take the shot of the couple at the event insisting they were working with the instruction given by the cleric who does not want the wedding publicized.

Dressed in modest white native attire, Prophet Abiara who followed all traditional activities at the event was his usual self at the event attended by very important personalities. At the end of the traditional rites, the invited guests were later ushered into the English Chapel of the Church where the church service held.

The reception which was under a very tight security was opened to only few guests with many of the church members registering their displeasure when they were turned back.

A source within the church said the new wife whose parents were physically present at the event is expected to coordinate the women in the church. One of the women leaders who do not want her name in print while speaking to Church Times at the venue of the wedding said the bride was never married as she committed her life to the Lord.

“My brother, just as it happened to Pastor Kumuyi, God has a way of preserving certain individuals for these men of God. It is important that Baba remarries because there are many roles to be played by the wife of the man of God. Since Baba’s former wife died, there’s this unfilled vacuum and I believe her coming will put an end to this” she said.