Lagos pastor relocates church over sex video

Lagos pastor Chris Omatsola and ex-lover Tamaratokoni Okpewho

Apostle Chris Omatsola of Zionwealth of Life Assembly, who is at the centre of a viral sex video scandal, has relocated his church over alleged threat to his life.

Omatsola told Punch on Sunday that the new location of his ministry was only known to core members.

The pastor made headlines after a video of him and his former lover, Tamaratokoni Okpewho, having sex appeared on the internet.

Okpewho accuses Omatsola of leaking the video to force her to remain in an abusive relationship with him while the cleric accuses her of blackmail.

He alleged that Okpewho demanded N200m from him.

A Punch correspondent who visited the church’s old location on Admiralty Way, Lekki on Sunday reported that service did not hold.

Some residents of the area said they did not know anything about the church.

When the newspaper called Omatsola’s telephone line, a man who picked the call said the pastor had become depressed by media attacks and public criticism, adding that he was not available for comments.

When Omatsola eventually agreed to speak, he said he had relocated his ministry because he feared for his life and those of his members.

While insisting that he did not leak the video, he added that his only regret was having premarital sex.

“A lot of waters have gone under the bridge. We are trying to protect ourselves from the public because they have not really been fair to us. We still have a lot of our people, although this has affected our ministry grossly. Our church is a ministry. It is an assembly of young people.

“We have a location where we meet for now because of what happened; we have been receiving a lot of threats; some people are saying they want to burn our church. We had to change the location to a designated place where we meet and we will not share that with the public because we don’t want the public; we know our people,” he said.