When A Jilted Doctor Was Battered

What could have made a lady who had been in a relationship with a promising young doctor for seven years and even got impregnated during the courtship suddenly switch her allegiance to a pastor and within days got married to the latter in his church. The puzzle is compounded by the fact that for three days before the marriage, the lady was safe in the arms of his jilted lover in his house at 3 Oremeji Street, Iyana Iba, Lagos

This was the puzzle policemen at the Ijanikin division in Lagos State faced on Monday when a medical doctor at the paediatric section of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH, Dr. Adeyemi Oladele, members of his family and his former lover, Christiana Essiet, now married to Pastor Ubong Abasi Okono, General Overseer, Faith and Fire Prayer Ministry, Ketu, Ijanikin, Lagos, came to the station to state their side of the story in a drama which caused a breach of the peace in the area at the weekend.

The breach occurred when the doctor was seriously assaulted by ushers and members of the congregation during the solemnisation of the marriage between the pastor and his bride.

Trouble started when the medical doctor learnt through one of his friends that his lovely girlfriend, who he had spent a fortune on and who went missing from his residence the day before the marriage, was in a church in Iyana Iba tying the nuptial knot with a pastor.

Enraged by the information, the doctor left everything he was doing and chartered a vehicle to the church where the marriage was taking place. Fortunately for him, he arrived at a special period when the officiating minister was about to pronounce the groom and his bride husband and wife. The officiating minister had posed the eternal marriage statement: “Whoever has any reason or cause as to why this man and woman should not be joined together in holy matrimony should speak up by raising his hand or keep shut forever.”

Everybody’s gaze inside the hall where the marriage was taking place suddenly shifted to the enraged doctor who stood up and raised his hand. “I have something to say,” he bellowed. The officiating minister gave him the microphone and he narrated how he was betrayed by the bride.

Before he could finish his narration, the ushers and some members of the congregation pounced on him and beat him to a pulp. He was later handed over to the police who bundled him to their station before hearing his own side of the story.

At the station, the doctor narrated his side of the story to the police and the policemen who then had pity on him, went after the pastor and his wife and brought them to the station.

After getting their statements, the parties were asked to report to the station last Monday.

P.M.NEWS investigations revealed that the medical doctor and the bride, Christiana Essiet had dated for seven years and the bride had slept with the doctor in his house three days before the marriage last weekend (6 August).

Doctor Oladele also confirmed to P.M.NEWS that he sponsored the bride’s university education at the University of Uyo where she read Business Management and had been responsible for the upkeep of her family before her sudden change of heart which he claimed was influenced by her mother who did not want her to marry a Yoruba man. Doctor Oladele is from Ondo State.

“ I know he didn’t like the pastor she was forced to marry because three days before the marriage she had been sleeping with me in my house at Iyana Iba. Before her father died early this year, her parents had sanctioned our marriage and we were planning to get married later this year. Trouble started when her father died around January. Unknown to me, Christiana’s mother had all along opposed our relationship and it was her father that always prevailed on her to allow the relationship since we both love each other.

“Immediately the man died, she came out in her true colours and tried to force Christiana to abandon me but she resisted. It got to a stage that she packed to my house and started living with me. She even got pregnant for me but the pregnancy came down,” he narrated.

So on 6 August, 2011, when he heard that a wedding was going on in the pastor’s church, Dr. Oladele stormed the church and disrupted it. And he was beaten by the congregation who also handed him over to the police at the Ijanikin Divisional Headquarters.

“When the police heard my own side of the story, they granted me bail and invited all the parties to the station for settlement,” he added.

P.M.NEWS was at the Ijanikin Police Station yesterday where the pastor and his new wife, the doctor and members of his family were present.

In his explanation to the Divisional Police Officer mediating in the dispute, Pastor Okono said: “I proposed to her and she accepted it and her mother supported it. I am surprised that she slept with this ex-boyfriend three days to my wedding.”

Dr. Oladele told the officer that he felt let down. “Can you imagine how I was let down by my fiancee who I sponsored to the University of Uyo? We dated for seven years. We met each other in the same neighbourhood. She lived at 7A, Alhaja Hassana Street, Orile Iganmu. She is from Akwa-Ibom State. And she was five months pregnant for me and from Wednesday to Friday before the wedding we had sex and she demonstrated how much she loved me. She also cooked their native soup for me and the soup is kept in the fridge,” he told the police.

Throughout the proceedings, the lady at the centre of the scandal, Christiana, did not deny what the doctor said.

She told the police: “I was under pressure from my mom and the pastor. It is true I was five months pregnant for the doctor but my mother ordered me to the village and I was given some herbs to take and I had miscarriage.”

The police warned the parties to keep the peace after the doctor said he had forgiven her.