Miss Susan Chizoba, a former maid to the General Overseer of Christ Praying Assembly (CPA),Rev. Emeka King, was one of those who testified against him before an Ikeja High Court in 2006.
At the time, Rev. King was on trial for the murder of one of his members, Miss Ann Uzor and attempting to murder five others by pouring petrol on them and setting them ablaze.
Testifying at the trial in October 2006, Miss Chizoba informed the court that she was taken to the church in 2000 by her parents believing it to be a Christian home but that her parents stopped coming to the church six months later while she lived with Rev. King for seven years.
In her words, Miss Chizoba, testifying at the court said:
“When I came to live with the accused (Rev. King), he told me that I would be his permanent maid and that I would agree not to marry. He said anytime I wanted to serve him I must be stark Unclad which I did. No pant, no bra, I would be completely Unclad before him and I did this not once, not twice, but for several years. He also ordered me not to tell any member of my family where I was living. He gave me a ring which I always put on to indicate that I am his permanent maid and all this he made me to put into writing. I am a member of the Lord’s army and we bully people, putting fear into them and molesting them.
“The accused(Rev. King) is a very violent person, he would beat us mercilessly and as a result we always have wounds on our bodies. He called himself god, the owner of the universe and could do anything. We know this is not so but out of fear we could not challenge him. On the 22nd July 2006 the day of the fire incident, a sister named Kelechi came to call me from the Boys Quarter of the accused’s house where we were staying that the accused wanted to see me.
“When I got to him he did not even allow me to kneel down as we usually did when talking to him before he started beating me with stick, rod and anything he could find. I started crying, shouting and begging him not to kill me. It was then I noticed others who were there; Cosy, Chiejile, Jessica, Ann, Vivian and Kelechi.
He accused me that I lied to him that Chiejile did not sleep with me whereas Chiejile had confessed to him that he slept with me. But Chiejile never did he only said that so that the accused will not kill him.
“He said he would kill all of us. He then asked Kelechi to go and bring fuel and matches but when she brought it he told her that the petrol was not enough and that she should go and bring more which was brought in a very large plastic container. He then marched us out of the room saying he did not want to burn his rug and chair. While we were outside his room but within the church compound Kelechi poured petrol on us on his orders and he struck the first match which did not catch fire. When he struck the second match we were all engulfed in fire but I did not know how I managed to escape from there and I ran back to our apartment. When I noticed that Ann had been taken to the hospital, I ran out in my night gown and I never came back to the church. I came out of the place by the grace of God, I am free now, I am no longer under the spell of the accused person.”
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