The Senior Pastor, Dubamis International Church, Dr Paul Enenche, has at last spoken on the controversial death of super gospel artiste, Mrs Osinachi Nwanchukwu.
Enenche spoke in a video posted on his official Facebook account on Wednesday.
The Popular Cleric who appeared in the video with his wife, said that he did know know and couldn’t have known that the late talented singer was a victim of domestic violence. He said he had no way of knowing that she was being battered by the husband, Mr Peter Nwachukwu,
Enenche said that he was shocked to hear of the story after her death as none of the people who were privy to the information on the dastardly act informed the church authorities.
According to him, those who knew about the predicament of the late gospel minister told him that she prevailed on them not to disclose the situation.
In the list of those who hoarded the killer information were members of the choir, children of the late musician, and her producer in whose studio the husband once slapped her.
The Pastor gave a detailed account of how Mrs Osinachi’s was treated in various hospitals for a respiratory ailment and the efforts and assistance he renderedThe gospel artiste died on Friday in an Abuja hospital.
Until her death, the deceased musician was a leading chorister at Dunamis International Gospel Centre, Abuja.m here Dr Enenche is Senior Pastor.
She is famous for her song “Ekwueme; “Nara Ekele,” a song by Pastor Paul Enenche (Dunamis, Abuja), “Ekwueme,” a song by Prospa Ochimana, and Emma’s “You no dey use me play” are just a few of her works.
Gospel song loving Nigerians went into mourning immediately the news of her death hits social media space as many Nigerians doubted the news.
Not long after her death hit the social media, a floodgate of raging speculations emerged that she was a victim of domestic violence.
Prominent award wining gospel musician, and President of the Fellowship of Gospel Music Ministers of Nigeria Asu Ekiye, called for the immediate arrest of Osinachi’s husband who many said was beating her.
Following a complaint by the younger brother of the late musician, the Lugbe Police Division of the FCT Police Command arrested Mr Peter Nwanchukwu who is being investigated for culpable homicide on Monday.
With all manner of stories being peddled in the social media, millions of Nigerians and indeed a rattled nation looked in the direction of Pastor Enenche for clarification of the issues thrown up by the death of one of the world’s most talented gospel singers.
This is the story of Dr Paul Enenche as told through the video he release on Wednesday:
“We are in a season that calls for sober reflection in the light of the passing of our beloved sister, Osinachi Nwachukwu, who is a kingdom asset.
“In the light of so much misinformation, in the light of so much misconstruction of events, I decided to set straight what I know concerning the situation.
Over two and a half to three months ago, she came to see me with her husband with complaints of chest pain and respiratory distress.
“I prayed for her and prayed and prayed again. And when the symptoms did not abate, I counselled that they go to the hospital to help us to know exactly what we were dealing with.
And they asked if I could assist, help them, and facilitate that process. I called our head of the medical team, Dr Sang, who is a consultant paediatrician with the Federal Medical Centre, Keffi to assist and handle the situation. And he called his colleagues at the Federal Medical Centre, Jabi, where they attended to them.
“On seeing her, they ordered some investigations after examinations and that included CT scans and computerized axial tomography scans. That was done. From what the doctor saw, they felt that there was a need for further investigation, either at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital or the National Hospital in Abuja.
“I called the doctor at the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Dr Akor Alexander, and told him the situation and he asked that they come to see him immediately. And they went to the Gwagwalada teaching hospital.
“After they had examined her there and saw the situation, they felt that there was a need for histology and biopsy of the lung tissue, and they asked that they should go to the National Hospital to get that done.
“I again called the doctor, Jubril, who is head of pathology and consultant histopathologist of the National Hospital, Abuja, and reported the issue to him to help us go ahead with the investigations and find out what exactly happened.
“I am calling names, I am calling places because the people are available and alive and they are verifiable.
And then, they continued the management. The histology was done and from what I saw at that time, the picture was much milder than what the CT scan earlier showed. So, we felt very happy that at least there was a relief.
“She called me, literarily daily and we prayed with her. She reported progress. The point came when she needed no oxygen anymore. According to what she said to me one night, they checked her oxygen perfusion and it was 100% and we were very very excited at that progress.
“That was the point it was before we went over to the crusade in Cameroon. It was in Cameroon, the second night that I got to know of the unfortunate incident of her passing.
“Now, if there was domestic violence that lead to or coincided with the symptoms that she came with two and a half to three months ago, there is no way I would know and if there had been perrennial domestic violence, there was no way I would have known.
The things we were hearing after her passing, were things that were very very strange to my hearing. Then, I began to ask questions.
“First, I asked the twin sister, were you aware that your sister passed through all these things? She said yes she knew some of them. But that the majority of them, she was hearing also from those she confided in.
“I asked her if you knew, why didn’t you let us know. And the twin sister said she always begged her please don’t let the church know, don’t let the pastor know please, the man would change, just pray for us, the man will change. And that continued to happen.
“I asked the first son yesterday, I said was this real? And the son told other stories. And I said, so, why didn’t you tell me because typically they will run to me after service and I will pray for them, lay hands on them, why didn’t you tell me about what was going on in the home?
“And the young man said, they could not tell me because the father would always ask them after they left me, what did you tell the pastor, did you tell him anything, and so on and so forth.
“Other members of the choir who were privy to what was going on, I asked several of them when we paid a visit to the house of the deceased yesterday. What happened? Why were we not aware of all these things? The same story, that she will always go on her knees and ask them please don’t, don’t, don’t, just pray, we are trusting God for him to change.
The last one that touched me so much was the music producer, who came to see me in the office two days ago to tell me his own experience, how he witnessed that the man slapped the wife in his studio.
“And I said to him, you saw a man slapped a woman in your presence and you left the man alone and you are a man yourself. And he said before he could respond to the man, the woman again in tears on her knees begged him not to do anything, to leave him alone. And not even to do anything at all, and so on and so forth.
So, we have had these stories and these are the things we got to know after she has passed.
“As a person and as a church, everyone who knows us knows that we have zero degrees of tolerance for domestic abuse and wife battery of any sort.
“If you have ever listened to any of our relationship messages, there is a principle and a rule we have and that is it is better to be alive without marriage than to die because of marriage.
“We have said that over and over and over. I am sure that some of us would have listened to the clips of those messages.
“Now, this kind of time is a time where people heap all manners of the blame on the church and that is typical because whatever goes wrong anytime the first port of call is the church.
“I have seen people ask questions, why should a wife abuser be a member of a church or how can somebody be so brutal and he is a member of a church?
“That is not a question that people who know the Scriptures should ask. You know the ark of Noah. The same ark that carried good animals had evil beats inside the same ark.
“You know Jesus Christ had the followership of what the Bible called the multitude. And for me, multitude means multiple attitudes. People with a multitude of inclinations. People with multiple tendencies. People with multiple behaviours. In fact, one of those that followed Jesus Christ was a thief, who also sold him to death. He was called Judas Iscariot.
“The question is, how could somebody who followed Jesus Christ, as perfect as Jesus was, as instructive as he was, as impactful as he was, and still be a thief and murderer? That question is left for everybody to answer.
“But I can tell you the worse of it all, there was a personality called Lucifer, who was in Heaven, and became Satan, the devil under the nose of God in Heaven! A place where there was no sin and could have been no sin at all; this guy became an inventor and originator of sin. How is it possible for somebody to become a devil from being an archangel right inside Heaven?
“That is how possible it is for anybody to be anything while inside the church. Even the best of pastors or preachers or teachers in the world cannot change any man or woman, who is unwilling to be changed.
“In case you feel frustrated at anything, and you are airing your frustration here and there, it is a transfer of frustration, a transfer of aggression. The church is not your place of transferring frustration, transferring aggression.
“We are willing to help you. If you have so much bitterness, so much frustration, and so much distraction in your life and you don’t know where to vent it, but in situations like this, we can help you.
“We want to let you know we love you and Jesus loves you. It is well with you and it is well with your loved ones.
“For the family of the deceased, we pray for strength and health and for the body of Christ generally, it is well with you in Jesus’ precious name, amen.
“This is Dr Pastor Paul Enenche, Senior Pastor of Dunamis International Gospel Centre Worldwide. God bless you.”
