A 56-year-old woman, Mrs. Florence Igbiti, has appealed to relevant authorities to help free her 27 years old daughter who, according to her, has been hypnotised by a Benin-based Pastor, Craig Omorotiomwan of the Helpline International Ministries.
According to her, her daughter, Miss Treasure Ose Omonlumhen, abandoned her National Youth Service Scheme to go and stay with the Pastor, an act she described as strange and beyond her comprehension.
Mrs. Igbiti, who spoke to journalists at the Press Centre, Benin, amidst tears, said her daughter has since the incident become ‘high headed, stubborn and highly rebellious, pleading to relevant authorities to help free her daughter from the grip of the Pastor.
According to her, her daughter started attending the Helpline International Ministries 10 years ago, and that when she graduated from the University, she refused to go for the compulsory one year youth service but after pressure and persuasion for over 2 years after graduation she reluctantly obliged to go for the youth service.
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The mother added that when her daughter went for the youth service, she was posted to Abuja, and that because of environment related course she studied in the university, she was deployed to the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
She lamented that despite deploying her daughter to a juicy organisation like the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), the pastor who is the General Overseer called her daughter, spoke with her, and paid her flight ticket back to Benin, which made her daughter to abandon the NNPCL job to come to Benin to stay with the Pastor, crying out that it was not ordinary.
She narrated amidst tears: “The Pastor took her out of youth service and kept her in his house. She started the church 10 years ago. I didn’t notice her character started deteriorating. She used to a very calm, quiet, caring girl. As time goes on, she became high headed, stubborn and highly rebellious.
“The Pastor’s words are very smooth. He has very sweet words. He preaches very exciting messages.
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“I think that what he preaches in the pulpit is different from what he preaches to his sect like my daughter. And to my uttermost surprise, my daughter is not the only victim. Many girls are with him in his house, some are even pregnant. Meanwhile, his wife is abroad.
“What he preaches publicly is different from what he preaches to these sects. They are youths that have natural love for the things of God and those that are actually hungry for the things of God.
“I pleaded with him to encourage her to go back to complete her Youth service but he refused. Instead, he now systematically cut me off from the church and refused picking my calls. Then he just cut me off.
“Even when I lost my father, my daughter and himself did not even come. My daughter has been staying with him for about a year, six months now. She didn’t even tell me she was going to stay with the pastor.
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“The first year she stayed back because the pastor did not release her. She missed that year.
“I persisted and she enrolled again for the NYSC. She was deployed to Benue State from the where she was redeployed to Abuja where she was posted to NNPCL. But the pastor bought a ticket for her to come back. He just withdrew her like that. Since then, I have pleading with the pastor to let her go back and complete her
youth service, knowing the importance of it to her CV.
“The pastor now refused and systematically cut us off. I want to get my daughter back. But another thing I noticed is that my daughter is now acting very unusual. I’m suspecting he did something to her that I cannot understand.
“Her behavior is clearly different from the person she used to be. I’m sad about that. He has wasted the child several years.”
But the daughter who spoke on the phone said she was not hypnotized.
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She claimed she completed her NYSC Scheme but was silent on concerns of her mother.
Pastor Omorotiomwan did not pick calls to his phone but checks showed he has sued Mrs. Igbiti and the police for N50m as damages for unlawful violation and threatened violation of his rights.
He is asking the court for injunction to restrain Mrs. Igbiti and the police from raiding his residence.
Pastor Omorotiomwan is also asking fot a declaration that continued threats of his arrest was unconstitutional, unlawful, null and void.
