Not many people knew Pastor Kolade Akindayomi, first son of Pastor Josiah Akindayomi, founder of the Redeemed Christian Church of God.
The man who lived away from media attention like his siblings died on May 4 at the age of 75 and was accorded a befitting burial with the active participation of the church on June 13. His remains was interred in the Memorial Garden in the Redemption City.
But the memory of his passage and last days on earth has continued to evoke deep emotions among some of his close friends and relatives who had contact with him in his last moments.
A source who pleaded anonymity told Church Times that late Kolade Akindayomi nursed two major regrets in connection with his first failed marriage and unfilled dreams in the Nigerian Army.
The source said Kolade till his death was not happy that his first wife abandoned him to elope with another man after having seven children with him.
However, his estranged wife was said to have returned to the RCCG Redemption City to live like in a dilapidated house left behind by her former mother-in-law. She had to leave the apartment when the building was handed over to the church by the family. The building has since been rehabilitated..
It was gathered that the woman retraced her step back to her erstwhile mother in law’s house because her second marriage also hit the rock.
Pastor Kolade’s regret over his unsuccessful foray into the Nigerian Army against the wishes of his father was almost of equal proportion to the one he had concerning the Ill fated marriage.
Though he was fondly called ‘Baba Major’, Kolade who fought in the Nigerian civil war was said to have left the Army without fulfilling his dreams to rise in rank, raising suspicions that his military career floundered because his father was not happy with his choice of the khaki job.
After spending years in the military he came back to the church to serve. He was said to have been ordained in 1995. But his pastoral work was more in other logistics area of fhe
However, he would have been sacked by the Church after the divorce mess with his first wife but for some technicalities in the matter which provided the Church the leeway to retain him.
Reliable sources disclosed his retention might have been based on the fact that the marriage lacked legal backing as the woman just moved in with Kolade without the Church”s blessing and the Registry formalities, hence the liaison was viewed to be null and void in line with the church doctrine and provisions of martial laws.
But inspite of taking a new legal wife, Kolade continued to complain bitterly about his first wife’s betrayal, an indication that he hurted from the deep pain caused by the development till he went to his grave.