Rev Anita, the estranged wife of Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, the founder and General Overseer of Christ Embassy Church, in which she public ally accused her husband of ‘adultery’ and ‘unreasonable behavior’ continued to go all through the week even as emerging evident s  indi­cate the bitter feud has already claimed its first casualty.
The controversy around the di­vorce suit in court filed by


           The first victim of the couple’s break-up our press agents gather from some officials of the troubled church to be one of the pastors who worked with Rev Anita Oyakhilome at the London branch of the church.by name ''Rev Grace'', she was said to be sacked by Pastor Chris Oyakhilome in May when she allegedly raised a prayer team to pray for the God to restore peace in the church’s first family when Rev Anita, who headed the London church, stopped attending services.

One of the ministers, who spoke in confidence, said: “We suspected this issue is going to go public some day since the day Pastor Chris sacked Rev Grace for meddling in his family affairs by openly calling for prayers among some members in London, when Rev Anita avoided going to church, she was shepherding while all efforts to get her failed. Some of us believe our colleague in London did the right thing seeking spiritual help for Chris family but I think Pastor Chris misunderstood her intention and had to travel to London when he heard of the move to sack her and avoid the spread of rumor among members in London.”

Information had gone round last weekend on the messy divorce suit by Rev Anita in court in London seeking the dissolution of their close to two decades’ marriage.
         The divorce suit, with number FD14D01650, was filed on April 9, 2014 at Divorce Section A, Central Family Court, First Avenue House, High Holborn, London, UK, on Anita’s behalf by Attwaters Jameson Hill Solicitors, a full-service law firm with expertise in commercial law and a strong consumer focus in family, wills and estate, among others.
When our press agent contacted Attwaters Jameson Hill handling the divorce suit last week, the law firm said that Ms. Joyti Henchie, who heads the family law team, was in charge of the case, while her colleague, Ms. Kaylee Pleasance said she was going to communicate the next hearing date of the divorce suit.
         Oyakhilome’s church is seeing by people as one of the biggest denominations in Nigeria with membership in thousands and branches all over the world. Until last Monday 01/09/14 when the church removed the name and pictures of Rev Anita from its website, www.christembassy. org,          Pastor Chris as the founder of the church has been the president of Believers’ Love World Inc, the registered name of the church, while Rev Anita was the vice-president. They have two teenage daughters, Sharon and Charlyn.
Aside the sack of the London pastor, another issue linked to the divorce, which has also been generating tension in the church, is the cry of female ministers who are pointing at  Pastor Chris of introducing “controversial rules that are now threatening the foundation of many marriages in the church.”
A female church member of one of the Christ Embassy branches in Abuja told amplepress news agents that “the revolt of Rev Anita will be a child’s play to the one that people will soon see when we open up on how a secret policy introduced by Christ some time early this year has been tearing many families and homes apart in our parishes across the country.
       This is a strange directive which husbands and their wives must not worship or attend the same parish. as it stands, if a couple is a member of a parish, one of them have to be posted to another parish and this is fueling or encouraging adultery in the church in no small measure since couples are not close to each other. Some of us who are female ministers that have been separated from our husbands, we are already talking. Some have started revolting against the order in their parishes while some have refused to obey such unusual orders.”
      Another top female official of the church in one of the parishes sited in Ikeja Lagos corroborated the story when she told amplepress news agents that “The policy is real but it is creating tension in the church already.” The female minister, whose husband has been transferred out of the parish they have been attending together for years to give effect to the policy further, stated: “It’s a heartbreaking directive because now we know that directive was introduced to justify why Pastor Chris has is in Lagos and his wife Rev Anita in London but aside that, it is encouraging immorality while the church believes that we have an unusual grace that covers our human failings including adultery.”
      Coming down to her personal experience, the female minister disclosed that soon after her husband was transferred to a parish far away from the parish they use to attend, “one of the male ministers where I am to stay back started winking at me. The first Sunday I felt he did that unknowingly or without any ulterior motive but the following Sunday he came to shake hands with me after service and what he did was to use one of his fingers to scratch my palm during the handshake. I was miffed but I couldn’t do anything because he will deny and I will look stupid but since then he got my message because I stopped greeting him.”that is how it starts she added.

         One of Pastor Oyakhilome’s aides, who hails from Edo State and manages some of the church’s business concerns in Ikeja Lagos, had denied there was any divorce lawsuit between the couple when called on Friday last week.
 Him said, “they got married in Nigeria, how would they file a divorce suit in London? It is not true and it’s not possible. If anything is filed, it is either in Nigeria here or nowhere else because both are Nigerians. Even though, the wife may have dual citizenship, her father is still a Nigerian and they both carry Nigerian passports.” Confirmations from Rev Anita’s lawyers in London, however, put a lie to his denial.     When also contacted on the latest accusations against Pastor Chris over the sack of Rev Grace and the policy of stoping husbands and wives from attending the same parish, the same senior church official denied the allegations.
Responding to the sack of the London pastor, he said: “It is not fair on the part of the person giving you this information. The church across the world and their pastors are all in tact. Nobody was placed on suspension to the best of my knowledge. The media have written enough on this, it’s time to let sleeping dogs lie.”
     On the alleged directive that couples who are pastors or members of the church are banned from serving in the same parish, the official said such should not be an issue. “If a church is expanding, more hands will be needed to handle the parishes. Ninety-nine per cent of our pastors are working class and only come to church when there are services.
“Those complaining still have access to their husbands after church. They should as well try and work in the same environment with their husbands or wives. It’s really laughable and not an issue of discourse in a church like Christ Embassy.”