frightening look.
But when 30 year-old Prophetess Folashade Esther Ogunseye of the
Celestial Church Genesis Model Parish Agbado, Ogun state went into
trance for seven days sometime in July this year, she warned her
church members not to celebrate the feat for her.
But they would have none of that as they insisted on rolling out the
drums. So on the fateful day, they prepared food and practically
dragged her to the church where they danced round her to celebrate the
spiritual feat.
In the midst of the celebration, one of the church workers called
Elijah allegedly sprayed perfume known in celestial parlance as Ona La
on the dancers without taking cognizance of lighted candles which some
of them were holding.
Alas the perfume caught fire and Sade was set ablaze along with three
other members who had joined in the celebration. A pastor in the
church who had come to rescue them was also affected by the fire.
However, Sade was the worst-hit as she suffered severe burns. So the
once delectable Sade has been turned to a monster of sort.
While speaking with Saturday Tribune at her residence, No 77 Osopitan
bus-stop, Agbado recently, the Abeokuta-born single lady said she was
still at a loss as to why such a terrible fate befell her even as she
blamed her church members for her predicament.
"I had warned them not to celebrate the trance for me; that I didn't
want noise. Rather, I asked them to pray for me silently, but they
refused. This was not the first time I would be going into a trance;
the ill-fated one happened to be my fourth. Aside this, I warned
Elijah not to pour perfume on me, but he didn't listen, see what has
happened now," she lamented.
According to her, the fire incident might also be a spiritual attack
from the enemies of somebody she prayed for while in the spirit.
"Maybe, I prayed for somebody when I was in the spirit and the thing
now bounced back on me during the celebration," she added.
Saturday Tribune learnt that immediately after the incident, Sade and
other victims of the fire were rushed to a private hospital near the
church from where they were taken to the General Hospital, Orile-Agege
the following day for a better medical attention from where they were
later discharged. However, while others have made considerable
progress and have since returned to the church, Sade could not because
of the severity of her condition.
She said: "I cannot do anything as I am. I always feel hot. My neck is
always paining me. I can't wear my clothes. I cannot sleep unless the
fan is on. My neck region is always paining me. I have to put
ice-block or pour cold water on myself to reduce the heat. For how
long will I do this?"
Although she commended the shephered in charge of the church, Prophet
Oladele Ogundipe and other members of the church for taking very good
care of her since the incident occurred, she sought the support of
other well-meaning Nigerians to restore her to her former position.
"My church has been so wonderful to me. The shephered, his mum, the
church patron and other members of the church have promised to help
me. But I don't know what will happen tomorrow. Nobody will be ready
to marry me in my present condition. I'm not even comfortable with
myself. This is why I am appealing to members of the public to join my
church in assisting me to get over my present condition," she added.
She is to blame for her predicament- Shephered- In- Charge.
Meanwhile, the Shephered-In- Charge of the church, Prophet Ogundipe
absolved himself of any blame in the incident, claiming Sade should be
held responsible for her present predicament. According to him, she
and other members of the church who joined in the celebration went
against the rules and regulation of the church. "In the Celestial
church, there is nothing like trance or going to the mountains for
seven days. In our church, we don't do any trance celebration, we
don't go to streams or the bush; we are not fetish and we don't do
anything barbaric. I have always warned all church members to steer
clear of anything that is not in the vision of the church," he added.
Though he said he and the chairman of the church were not around on
the fateful day, he gave an account of what must have caused the fire:
"People have been saying it was a strange fire but there is nothing
like that. It was the perfume that was poured on her that caught fire
because of the lighted candle at the altar. This is a lesson to
everybody that if they want to employ anybody, they should not employ
an illiterate because they would not know how to handle things."
He told Saturday Tribune that the church member(Elijah) that allegedly
sprayed the perfume had been sacked and disgraced from the church. On
the steps the church had taken since the incident, Ogundipe explained:
"Immediately the incident happened, they took them to a private
hospital nearby. But I insisted they should be transferred to a
government hospital for the purpose of transparency because we have
nothing to hide. We also reported the incident to the police because I
know bad news spreads wide."
He added: "So far, the church has spent over N800,000 on Sade and the
three others that were affected by the incident. We employed somebody
to take care of Sade at home. The church gives her N5,000 weekly. We
bought a fan and a generator for her and we rent air-conditioned
vehicles to take her to the hospital whenever she has an appointment.
We had to stop the on-going construction work at the church because of
these expenses."
He however condemned Sade's general attitude to her situation: "She
asked to be discharged from the General Hospital, Orile-Agege when she
was still receiving treatment. Even the medical personnel are not
happy with her attitude."
When Saturday Tribune suggested the idea of reconstructive surgery to
Prophet Ogundipe, he said he was not sure the church would be able to
foot the bill for now even as he added that there had been assurance
from experts that the wounds would heal naturally.
"A physiotherapist at the Lagos State University Teaching
Hospital(LASUTH) has said that it will take between two to three years
for the wounds to heal completely because the trauma is still there.
They are still applying some drugs for now and may not need any
reconstructive surgery."