Female evangelist drags popular Nigerian pastor to court over fake marriage promise

The Criminal Area Court II in Yola, Adamawa State, was recently turned into a scene of Nollywood, after a female evangelist , Keane Tumba, filed a lawsuit before the Court against a Pastor with House Chapel in Karewa, Yola North LGA, Marwa Tumba, for allegedly making fake marital promises to her, squandering her money and then dumping her for another woman.

The complainant in her court papers told the court that she and the 28-year-old pastor met at a prayer meeting at Yolde Pate, a suburb of Yola South LGA in 2019, during which he told her that he saw a vision that she was his wife and he was her husband.

She said the pastor immediately told her to ”sow a seed” so she can key into the vision. She told the court that she began by first sowing a seed of N1,000. She said their relationship blossomed as the man of God began to visit her in her home which she built while working with a Non-Governmental organization. She said it was in the initial stage of their relationship that the clergyman promised to marry her.

A distraught Tumba told the court that while they were courting, the clergyman told her to resign from her place of work and sell off her house before they can get married. She said she did as he said, resigned from her job and sold her house for N500,000. According to her, when the money of the house was paid to her, she immediately transferred the sum of N50,000 as tithe into the account of the pastor and used the remaining money to support the church from time to time until all the money got finished.

She told the court that it got to a time that he asked her to give him the list of all items as provided by tradition for their marriage, which she did. Tumba told the court that the pastor even deceived her to travel to her village in Michika with a promise he will be coming with his family for their introduction. She said she was in her parent’s house in the village for days without him nor his family showing up.

She told the court that while in her village, she tried reaching him on phone but he refused to pick up his call. She told the court that she traveled back to Yola and received the shock of her life. Her clergyman boyfriend was nowhere to be found.

She lamented that the clergyman abandoned her after he squandered her money, made her quit her job, sold her only house, and became miserable, saying that she currently lives in one uncompleted building in Yolde Pate and sells vegetables to earn a living.

However, the pastor who was in court with another lady whom he had engaged, pleaded not guilty to all the allegations when the complaint from Tumba was read to him.

The presiding judge, Justice Nuhu Musa Garta, thereafter adjourned the case till February 4 for further jurisdiction.